The Messenger by Daniel SilvaMy review
rating: 2 of 5 stars
Silva's 6th Gabriel Allon book continues the Master Terrorist plot riff from the previous Prince Of Fire while cribbing another from the first Allon book The Kill Artist: That of using a beautiful woman to trap a terrorist master-mind. Considerable time is taken on the set-up and "prepping the bait". And some effective tension is generated when Allen's undercover operation is blown and neccesitates a race against time to rescue a beautiful Jewish woman before her death at the hands of evil murderous Arabs. If the tone of this review sounds racist, then it's merely echoing Silva's surprisingly Arabo-phobic tone in this book. Granted when one makes a series' hero a top spy for the Israeli Secret Service, you announce where your allegiance in this conflict lies from the get go. But Silva who has so far managed a balanced tone in his previous spy thrillers with the Arab-Israel conflict providing the background, leans heavily on the Zionist angle here, which makes it the lesser entry in the series for me. And having not one, but TWO assassination attempts in the heart of the Vatican over the course of a single book is stretching incredulity.
And those expecting some much-deserved come-uppance for the Chief Baddie will be sorely disappointed in the perfunctory way he's dispatched off (not the first time Silva's had this problem, by the way).
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