Name: Jeff Brown 's review of The English Girl by Daniel Silva
Item: The English Girl
Rating: 3
Author: Jeff Brown

Daniel Silva

The wayward son of Israeli intelligence, Gabriel Allon is plunged into a high stakes game of murder, espionage, and corruption after a beautiful young British woman vanishes on the island of Corsica, which threatens to destroy a prime minister's career.

a novel

The English Girl

From the internationally bestselling author of The Other Woman and House of Spies comes another stunning thriller in his latest action-packed tale of high stakes international intrigue. NOW YOU SEE HER. NOW YOU DON'T. THE NEW GIRL A novel of intrigue, betrayal, and revenge. At an exclusive private school in Switzerland, mystery surrounds the identity of the beautiful girl who arrives each morning and leaves each afternoon in a heavily protected motorcade fit for a head of state. She is said to be the daughter of a wealthy international businessman. She is not. And when she is brutally kidnapped across the border in the Haute-Savoie region of France, Gabriel Allon, the legendary chief of Israeli intelligence, is thrust into a deadly secret war with an old enemy that will determine the future of the Middle East-and perhaps the world ... Extraordinary acclaim for The New Girl and the Gabriel Allon Series 'One of the greatest novelists the genre has ever known ... The New Girl is as close to perfect as you could ever hope for a thriller to be.' The Real Book Spy 'An excellent introduction for new readers' Publishers Weekly 'The New Girl is a brilliant novel ... Eye-opening and a joy to read' Bob Woodward 'Another jewel in the bedazzling crown of a spy-fiction master' Booklist (starred review) 'Excellent ... Readers will be enthralled by both the history and the up-to-the-minute plot that Silva spins with such finesse.' Publishers Weekly (starred review) 'A world-class practitioner of spy fiction' Washington Post 'This might be the best spy thriller since John le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy ... The Other Woman is an instant classic' CrimeReads 'With Silva's novels you find yourself being educated as well as being entertained ... Silva is that rarity of rarities, a writer whose stories just keep getting better.' Huffington Post

A Novel

The New Girl

Jeff Brown 

This is the forward to this book: "In August 2018, I commenced work on a novel about a crusading young Arab prince who wanted to modernize his religiously intolerant country and bring sweeping change to the Middle East and the broader Islamic world. I set aside that manuscript two months later, however, when the model for that character, Mohammad bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, was implicated in the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident and columnist for the Washington Post. Elements of 'The New Girl' are quite obviously inspired by events surrounding Khashoggi's death. The rest occur only in the imaginary world inhabited by Gabriel Allon, and his enemies."

That is correct -- and it was the most interesting part of the first half of "The New Girl".

The above items occurred to the Saudi character, who becomes a jerk, a party boy and is shunned by the rest of the world. Except, when the character has a personal crisis and comes to Allon for help. An Arab asking an Israeli for help? A lot of others around Allon questioned his decision.

The first half of the book is very un-Allon (and very un-Silva) like. Silva always includes items in his books that inform you about the people or the countries involved. I'm not greatly knowledgeable about the Middle East, but there really wasn't much provided from which to learn. And usually when Allon is presented with such a crisis, he goes after the potential perpetrators like a rabid dog, guns blazing. But he spends this portion of the book attempting to be a mentor to a young man that won't hear anything from Allon if it doesn't end his crisis in a positive manner.

As I was falling asleep at the mid-point of the book, the personal crisis comes to a head and a tragic ending occurs to halt the crisis for the Saudi -- an ending that makes a connection with Allon's past. It wouldn't bind them as best buds forever, but it provides an increased level of closeness between the two characters.

The next 20 percent of the book sets up the usual stellar ending of a Silva book in the final 30 percent.

I have never had such a wide disparity of feelings of a Silva book. It usually starts strong, jumping to parts known and unknown, increasing in intensity into a great ending. It started out slow and remained slow (except for the end of the personal crisis) for over 50 percent of the book.

I wanted to give this a 4 -- almost out of habit -- but it wouldn't be honest. I truly hope this was a hiccup for Silva when real life interrupted his writing for the book. I hope you like the book. But if you have read the other 18 Allon novels ..... I told you so.

Sahi K

I was quite skeptical about reading this book because of its storyline and the real life person on whom it is based. But I’m also a huge fan of the series, so I decided to give it a try. I was very glad to read the author’s clarification in the foreword and that surely made me a little excited to read. 

While this was a very fast paced read and I finished it in just a few hours, I won’t say this is one of his finer stories. It was quite engaging even if not realistic for almost the first half, but the latter half which features the main operation spearheaded by Gabriel was too unbelievable for even an entertaining spy thriller. I also hated that the “character” whom I don’t want to talk about was almost getting a redemption arc (because reality is much darker and messy). So I was prepared to end the book on a disappointing note but I did not see the last line coming. I don’t think I’ve ever waited for a next book so much before, but I just want to know what the hell happened. 

I guess I just don’t have much to say about this book. If you’ve read the previous 18 books of Gabriel’s adventures, then you shouldn’t give this a miss. It doesn’t really work well as a stand-alone for new readers though - you definitely need to know the events that occur in the previous installment The Other Woman to understand this book better. I’m also not really convinced that the use of major horrifying events from around the world worked for the plot of this novel. I know I’ll be continuing the series but I won’t ever be revisiting this one.

Gigi V

The target is royal The game is revenge Gabriel Allon returns in the summer's hottest thriller, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Daniel Silva. Stretched topless upon the foredeck, drink in hand, her flawless skin baking in the sun, was the most famous woman in the world. And one deck below, preparing an appetizer of tuna tartare, cucumber, and pineapple, was the man who was going to kill her. . . . She is an iconic member of the British Royal Family, beloved for her beauty and charitable works, resented by her former husband and his mother, the Queen of England. But when a bomb explodes aboard her holiday yacht, British intelligence turns to one man to track down her killer: legendary spy and assassin Gabriel Allon. Gabriel's target is Eamon Quinn, a master bomb maker and mercenary of death who sells his services to the highest bidder. Quinn is an elusive man of the shadows—"a whisper in a half-lit chapel, a loose thread at the hem of a discarded garment"—but fortunately Gabriel does not pursue him alone. At his side is Christopher Keller, a British commando turned professional assassin who knows Quinn's murderous handiwork all too well. The English Spy moves at light speed from the glamorous island of Saint Barthélemy to the mean streets of West Belfast to a cottage atop the cliffs of Cornwall that Gabriel holds dear. And though he does not realize it, he is stalking an old enemy—a cabal of evil that wants nothing more than to see him dead. Gabriel will find it necessary to oblige them, for when a man is out for vengeance, death has its distinct advantages. Filled with breathtaking twists, The English Spy will hold readers spellbound from its riveting opening passages to its heart-stopping conclusion. It is a timely reminder that there are some men in the world who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals. And it proves once again why Daniel Silva is regarded as his generation's finest writer of international thrillers.

The English Spy

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A World War II spy novel about a beautiful Nazi secret agent and her pursuer, a former history professor turned spy catcher. The setting is England, the time just before the D-Day landings. A first novel.

The Unlikely Spy

Michael Cowell

Shaun Clark

Keely Adler

‘Allon is the 21st century Bond’ Daily Mail No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Daniel Silva delivers another stunning thriller in his latest action-packed tale of high stakes international intrigue featuring the inimitable Gabriel Allon.

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The English Girl by Daniel Silva

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