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Moscow Rules by Daniel Silva |
| (Putnam, $26.95, V) ISBN 978-0-399-15501-7 |
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| Gabriel Allon is on his honeymoon in Umbria simultaneously restoring the Poussin painting Martyrdom of St. Erasmus for the Pope when he is called to Assisi by Israeli intelligence. While meeting with Uzi Navot, the head of special ops, Allon is advised that Hamas and Sword of Allah agents have been instructed to assassinate him and also that he is needed in Rome to meet with a Russian newspaper editor who wants only to speak with Allon about a threat to the security of Israel. Before Gabriel can speak with the Russian, he is poisoned.
Gabriel is his nation’s most revered secret agent having avenged the Black September terrorists of the 1972 Munich Olympics. He returns briefly to Jerusalem to speak with his mentor, Ari Shamron, still famous for kidnapping Adolf Eichmann in 1960. While in Jersualem, Gabriel assumes the identity of Natan Golani from the Ministry of Culture so that he can travel to Russia where he learns that the man he seeks is Ivan Kharkov a former KGB now arms dealer. After a stint in Lubyanka Prison, Gabriel returns to Israel and plots his revenge. Moscow Rules is a true intellectual international espionage thriller. Daniel Silva, a former journalist, uses complex, carefully drawn characters and evocative dialogue descriptions to provide a look at New Mother Russia. Gabriel Allon travels from Italy to France to Russia and then to Israel among other places. There is more spycraft in Moscow Rules than there is action but Silva puts it all together quite well leaving us wondering what will happen in his next novel.
--Jerry Solot |
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