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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I heard Daniel Silva being interviewed on NPR and listened to the callers fawning over his books. Being a big fan of taut modern thrillers, I added his first Gabriel Allon book, "The Kill Artist" to my "to read" list.
Sometimes books suffer by juxtaposition. "The Kill Artist" was a decent thriller but it didn't measure up to the recent thrillers by Stieg Larsson. Having recently finished "The [b:Girl with the Dragon Tattoo|2429135|The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium, #1)|Stieg Larsson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1275608878s/2429135.jpg|1708725]" and the "Girl who Played with Fire" I kept thinking how engaged I was while reading them and how indifferent I was about this book. In fact, I took a break in the middle of "The Kill Artist" to read another book.
The writing was serviceable, but bland. The characters were somewhat flat and uninteresting. Again, in comparison, I would take Michael Blomkvist over Garbriel Allon and Lisbeth Salander over Jacqueline Delacroix for complex, fully-realized characters.
One little pet-peeve (and this might be a minor spoiler...): the story involves a recent Palestinian/Israeli peace deal and Yasser Arafat is a main character that makes an appearance toward the end. What baffled me was Silva's decision to use a fictitious U.S. President named James Beckwith. It was so distracting. I could just imagine Sam Waterston entering the room.
After reading the "The Kill Artist," I'm not sure I will continue on with this series, even though I understand the "English Assassin" is pretty good.
Sometimes books suffer by juxtaposition. "The Kill Artist" was a decent thriller but it didn't measure up to the recent thrillers by Stieg Larsson. Having recently finished "The [b:Girl with the Dragon Tattoo|2429135|The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium, #1)|Stieg Larsson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1275608878s/2429135.jpg|1708725]" and the "Girl who Played with Fire" I kept thinking how engaged I was while reading them and how indifferent I was about this book. In fact, I took a break in the middle of "The Kill Artist" to read another book.
The writing was serviceable, but bland. The characters were somewhat flat and uninteresting. Again, in comparison, I would take Michael Blomkvist over Garbriel Allon and Lisbeth Salander over Jacqueline Delacroix for complex, fully-realized characters.
One little pet-peeve (and this might be a minor spoiler...): the story involves a recent Palestinian/Israeli peace deal and Yasser Arafat is a main character that makes an appearance toward the end. What baffled me was Silva's decision to use a fictitious U.S. President named James Beckwith. It was so distracting. I could just imagine Sam Waterston entering the room.
After reading the "The Kill Artist," I'm not sure I will continue on with this series, even though I understand the "English Assassin" is pretty good.
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry
Moderate: Death, Terminal illness, Murder
Minor: Child death
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Good novel but he can include long stretches where what he is writing about is not pertinent to the plot at all. And it took half the book for the "main characters" to get together. Seemed a bit strange.
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Fun pulpy spy novel! The beginning took a while to get me pulled in because it jumped around between many locations and people but once I got the bigger picture I couldn't stop turning the pages!