The International Killer Thriller Daniel Silva’s Reinvention of Spy and Noir Fiction

The International Killer Thriller focuses on the extremely successful novels of Daniel Silva, who has pulled off the daunting task of writing, in short order, a series of novels with the same protagonist—Gabriel Allon, a world-famous assassin whom we are to regard as our hero. Originally hired by Israel on the order of Golda Meir to avenge the assassination of the Jewish athletic team at the Munich Olympics, Gabriel has been called upon subsequently by his government and then by those of Britain, Italy, France, and the United States either to mastermind or to assist in the operations against the assassins or master criminals of other countries. What makes him more interesting than most top guns is his other career—restoring masterpieces of painting from either old age or criminal damage. Taken as a series, the fifteen Allon novels take the reader all over the world, including Putin’s Russia. The series requires us to evaluate the role of violence and especially revenge in the world we and our political leaders are forced to engage in. They all take place in almost real time and are up-to-date or even prescient about the dangers we face.