Daniel Silva

A Novel

House of Spies

Michael W

Silva is as tight and stylish a writer as ever, and crafts another summer page-turner here. That is enough to earn three stars, but sadly the largely predictable formula doesn't transcend a basic, solid Silva outing. A quick, fun summer read, but nothing special, and unfortunately for us long time fans, showing the tiredness of a long running genre series.

Silva's increasingly rightward ideological bent is still in evidence here, but, perhaps because the White House is no longer occupied by the Obama he so clearly loathed, is less in your face than the utter distraction it proved in Black Widow. So that was a nice change, though it remains a bit concerning the number of folks who seem to gather much of their "knowledge" of terrorism and political violence from the fictional, right-tinted world Silva has crafted with the help of pseudo-intellectual polemics like "Londonistan" (approvingly quoted in a previous authors note) and the op-ed page of Fox News/Breitbart.

Sahi K

** spoiler alert **
           
Even though it’s the 17th outing of Gabriel Allon, the anticipation for this book remains high. It starts off on a promising note – five hundred dead in three separate but coordinated attacks in the West End of London. Adrian Carter is working in conjunction with MI5 to identify the players even though there is no doubt that the mastermind is Saladin – the same one behind the attacks in Washington DC at the end of the previous book. The trail leads to a Moroccan-French drug dealer and here enters Gabriel – the newly minted ramsad of the Office who has to smooth things with French intelligence to figure out where the trail leads to. It ends at a French hotelier billionaire, friends with the Prime Minister but rumored to be a drug dealer.

Here starts the story that readers are all too familiar with – coerce/convince the Frenchman and his girlfriend to cooperate and finally help the team in a clandestine operation leading right to Saladin. The ending is good but quite simplistic too, still enjoyable. The idea that the chief of an intelligence agency would personally shoot and kill a terrorist mastermind is unthinkable in the real world but we can expect nothing less from Gabriel. Even though this series is becoming quite repetitive in the last couple of books, it’s still difficult to put down because Gabriel remains the killer with a conscience – the Prince of Fire.

Silva, Daniel

“One of fiction’s greatest spies,” (Kirkus), Gabriel Allon returns for his seventeenth adventure in the new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Daniel Silva. The Black Widow, the last book in the series, was a prescient and timely thriller — called “a sobering, insightful, and multifaceted look at the overwhelming complexities of the seemingly interminable war in the Middle East” (Booklist, starred review). It drew rave reviews from critics and readers. It also introduced a compelling new female spy, destined to make a return in the series. Fans and new readers alike will be drawn in once again by this masterful storyteller at the height of his writerly powers — “Silva is a true genius with his portrait of the Israeli assassin-art restorer facing new, real world complexities” (Politico).

Dorian Avers

** spoiler alert **
            3.5 I enjoyed this book. It was sitting on our bookshelf and the name sounded somewhat familiar, so I picked it up. I realized after thinking that it sounded familiar I must've been thinking about the movie Bridge of Spies, but that's not important. I didn't realize that this book was part of a series, much less that it was the seventeenth book of a series. I think the author did a great job of accepting a new reader this far along and quickly explaining or noting events from the past while making it both understandable and vague enough that the reader would still be interested in reading the books that came before. This novel was like watching a day time cop show. Something like Law and Order or C.S.I, but obviously on an international scale. The characters have a job, but also messy histories and different kinds of chemistry. I'm definitely interested in reading the first book of the series and seeing where it all started, although I'm not in a huge hurry. 
 As an American, I liked the subtle digs and call outs about our country and the way we handle foreign affairs. How the Americans are a bit trigger happy when it comes to drone operations and destroy parts of other countries, but rarely stick around to help pick up the pieces. We are then unaccepting and pompous when immigrants flee their country that we helped destroy and try to come here. It's sad, but it's true.
 At the beginning of this novel I felt as though I was trying to play catch up. Normally I enjoy a story with multiple perspectives, but the rapidity that Silva used to jump from one narration to another was too much for me. I didn't have enough time to get into a character's story and their setting before I was flung into another's. I thought the pacing got much better when the agents were all closer together. 
 It bothered me that the women were pushed aside quite a bit in this novel. Even though there are descriptions of strong females, and they do some undercover work, they're not allowed to go into situations where there are going to be attacks. Like when the boys are about to head into Saladin's hideout and they leave both the girls, even though they blatantly say that Dina has trained with one of the men and been a part of one of the agency's. I understand leaving Natalie after her nightmare and shaky gun pointing. They try to convince Gabriel to "stay behind with the girls and protect the girls" or something along that line and it felt a bit belittling. Silva does write strong female characters, but a few times it just rubbed me the wrong way how they were not included in the action. They were strong because he said they were, but I wasn't shown it in this novel. Maybe there's more combat with females in some of his other novels.
 Overall, this was an enjoyable novel and a quick read once I found my footing. This is a book I could never write. Between the general knowledge of history, warfare, and geography and the plotting and outside advice that it took, it's impressive. I'm definitely open to reading more from this author.

Magdalene Lim

Didn't realise this was book #17 of a series!! Liked this book for its realness accentuated by the similarity to recent events. A pretty interesting spy book which had me riveted at certain portions but also took me a while to finish. AKA not a book that I gobbled down.

House of Spies A Novel

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