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A review by asteroidbuckle
The Secret Servant by Daniel Silva
4.0
Yet another great installment in the Gabriel Allon series.
I have been working to catch up in this series; I'd fallen four books behind. I'm still working on the latest one, but the previous three have been great!
This time, the daughter of the American ambassador in London has been kidnapped by the Sword of Allah, an extremist Islamic group that wants to (what else?) bring down the infidels (esp. the Americans and their puppets, the Mubarak regime in Egypt) and institute the laws of Allah.
Once again, Gabriel does the dirty work that the CIA won't and in the process, he's taken hostage. Of course, Gabriel's cunning and calm-under-pressure demeanor help edge the bad guys and save the ambassador's daughter.
This book was exceptional in its portrayal of Gabriel's many facets. It's amazing how he's still able to maintain his humanity despite all the terrible things he's seen and done. Not to mention how he can turn off his emotions and become the cold, calculating assassin when necessary.
There is a particularly riveting scene near the end when, after he's been rescued from his captors by his crack team of cohorts, he stands over the injured bad guy and calmly shoots him numerous times in the leg in order to extract the whereabouts of the ambassador's daughter. The whole thing gave me chills.
Let me state for the record that I do not like Chiara, Gabriel's fiancee. I don't know why, really, except I find her irritating. (Maybe I just prefer my heroes lonely and miserable?) But they finally get married in this book and the way the wedding comes about did make me smile.
Silva is a great spy/suspense writer and I will definitely read whatever he writes. I haven't been disappointed yet.
I have been working to catch up in this series; I'd fallen four books behind. I'm still working on the latest one, but the previous three have been great!
This time, the daughter of the American ambassador in London has been kidnapped by the Sword of Allah, an extremist Islamic group that wants to (what else?) bring down the infidels (esp. the Americans and their puppets, the Mubarak regime in Egypt) and institute the laws of Allah.
Once again, Gabriel does the dirty work that the CIA won't and in the process, he's taken hostage. Of course, Gabriel's cunning and calm-under-pressure demeanor help edge the bad guys and save the ambassador's daughter.
This book was exceptional in its portrayal of Gabriel's many facets. It's amazing how he's still able to maintain his humanity despite all the terrible things he's seen and done. Not to mention how he can turn off his emotions and become the cold, calculating assassin when necessary.
There is a particularly riveting scene near the end when, after he's been rescued from his captors by his crack team of cohorts, he stands over the injured bad guy and calmly shoots him numerous times in the leg in order to extract the whereabouts of the ambassador's daughter. The whole thing gave me chills.
Let me state for the record that I do not like Chiara, Gabriel's fiancee. I don't know why, really, except I find her irritating. (Maybe I just prefer my heroes lonely and miserable?) But they finally get married in this book and the way the wedding comes about did make me smile.
Silva is a great spy/suspense writer and I will definitely read whatever he writes. I haven't been disappointed yet.