The English Assassin
Putnam, March, 2002.
Hardcover, 400 pages.
ISBN: 0399148515
Gabriel Allon is a well-known art restorer
who specializes in the restoration of Old Masters.
But art restoration is only one of his many talents; he
is also a part-time intelligence agent for the Israeli
government. His latest assignment sends him to Zurich
to restore a painting for a wealthy banker. When Gabriel
arrives at the home, he is given the access codes to the
security system and told to go inside. He discovers the
body of the murdered banker under the Old Master, and
immediately realizes that he is being framed for the killing.
As he sets out to find the real killer, Gabriel discovers
a number of people who will do anything to stop his
investigation. His enquiries lead him to a multitude of
shameful secrets about the Swiss people's cooperation
with the Nazis in World War II. As events spin out of control,
Gabriel realizes that he has another enemy: a brilliant assassin
that he actually helped train, known only as The Englishman.
Daniel Silva is one of the most promising authors in the spy genre to come along since Le Carre. He takes a familiar subject, the rape of Europe's art treasures by the Nazis and the Swiss cooperation in the crime, and gives it new life. Gabriel himself is a mass of contradictions: he is an expert assassin who is trained to take life, yet he is an incredibly skilled artisan who restores some of the world's most valuable treasures. Silva's prose is crisp and clean, and his pacing is excellent, as are his characterizations. Highly recommended.
--Claire E. White
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This review was published in the June, 2002 of The Internet Writing Journal.
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