Moscow Rules, Daniel Silva, G P Putnam's Sons, 2008, 425 pp
Another great thriller in the Gabriel Allon series. This time the Israeli assassin gets mixed up with an evil arms dealer in early 21st century Russia. In the post-communist years of gangsters and oil wealth, former KGB personnel are cashing in while using the same old techniques. Gabriel is forced to learn the Moscow rules of espionage.
Ivan Kharkov is about to deliver a huge shipment of deadly weapons to al-Qaeda which will be used for terror attacks against major cities, more deadly than 9/11.
Gabriel goes to Moscow due to the death of a journalist who was critical of the Kremlin. Her newspaper's publisher had requested a meeting with Allon. While he is there, undercover, Karkov's wife approaches him with a deadly proposition.
It takes Silva quite a few chapters to set the scene and introduce all the characters but the tension builds and once Gabriel gets to Russia I was convinced I was reading a realistic portrayal of conditions there in the early Putin years.
As always, Daniel Silva was a few steps ahead of our times. I read an interview concerning how he keeps writing about incidents similar to what eventually happens in the real world. His answers were eye-opening. I suppose those of you who avidly follow good news reporting can also read between the lines.
Moscow Rules is Silva's 8th in the series. His latest, The New Girl, #19, came out just the other day. If I could read one a month, I could be caught up by the time his next one comes out. It is tempting.
i got turned off re spy books by Ambler: in his works every one seems to die at the finale... maybe i should try one of Silva's? i see his name occasionally... i do remember le Carre's Smiley rather fondly, tho...
ReplyDeleteGabriel Allon never dies! Though you always fear he will, each time. Instead one bad guy at a time dies. What else could be better?
DeleteThis sounds good. I have not read many spy thrillers. But when it comes to these realistic seeming spy stories I do like a lot of the movies being made. I may give the genre a try sometimes. I would probably start with John le Carré books.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely start with le Carre! Both he and Silva are good with the recent terrorist times but le Carre does the Cold War British spy era very well also. We like the spy movies a lot at our house!
DeleteSilva seems to be writing these quickly! Gosh where is Carmen? I haven't started in yet on Allon but I know I'd like the series. Right now we are watching the Chernobyl TV series (5 episodes), it's very good and has scared me to my boots. The Russian cover-up could only work for so long ....
ReplyDeleteSilva writes one a year. I don't know how he does it because he does a lot of research. Yes, I miss Carmen. (Do you hear me, Carmen?) I think she is busy reading but she has not been by in a while. Oh boy, I know what you mean about Chernobyl.
DeleteLovely review! This sounds like a thrill ride series. I'm going to have to see if my library has the first one.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Carrie. All I can say is these books have given me insight into the world we live in.
DeleteYou can totally do that, go for it!
ReplyDeleteYes, I can!
DeleteI've sort of gone off this series recently but I may come back to it later in the year. As another commenter mentioned, we also just finished watching the excellent Chernobyl mini series. It was chilling and thought-provoking, not unlike Silva's writing.
ReplyDeleteWhere did you leave off with Silva? I have read Voices From Chernobyl but have yet to see the mini series.
DeleteI need to give Daniel Silva's novels another chance. I've listened to two audio versions of his books. One of them, The Defector, was abridged and I didn't care for the narrator. I also listened to the unabridged audio version of The Messenger and I didn't care for the narrator once again.
ReplyDeleteOne of my neighbors has read pretty much all of Daniel Silva's novels and loved them. You've seem to have enjoyed his novels too. So maybe I should read one of his books and skip the audio versions. Perhaps I will like them better.
I can't speak to how audio books impact a reader's experience of a book because I never read that way. I notice that many people do refer to the either positive or negative aspects of the narrators in that format. I find this series to be one that requires starting at the beginning, that each one builds on what happened in the one before, both for Gabriel and for Israel. The first one is The Kill Artist and while I think the books get better as he goes, that one really sets the scene, the characters and the purpose of the Israeli secret service.
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