The Secret Servant by Daniel Silva

From Barnes & Noble

The Amsterdam murder of Ephraim Rosner didn't set off international headlines, but it did send panic through high-clearance homeland security units. The terrorism analyst was killed just 24 hours before he was scheduled to meet with Israeli intelligence. Dutch police are certain that the assassin was a lone, deranged Muslim extremist, but Gabriel Allon's bosses fear a far more dangerous plot. They dispatch this art restorer/part-time spy to the Netherlands to ferret out the real cause of Rosner's slaying. What he learns there is soon eclipsed by fast-breaking developments that threaten what remains of world peace. Tension, twists, and breakneck thrills.

From the Publisher

He has been called his generation's finest writer of international intrigue, one of America's most gifted spy novelists ever, and the successor to Graham Greene and John le Carre. But with his follow-up to the 2006 electrifying number one bestseller The Messenger, Daniel Silva has written his most compelling and entertaining novel to date.

When last we encountered Gabriel Allon, the master art restorer and sometime officer of Israeli intelligence, he had just prevailed in his blood-soaked duel with Saudi terrorist financier Zizi al-Bakari. Now Gabriel is summoned once more by his masters to undertake what appears to be a routine assignment: travel to Amsterdam to purge the archives of a murdered Dutch terrorism analyst who also happened to be an asset of Israeli intelligence. But once in Amsterdam, Gabriel soon discovers a conspiracy of terror festering in the city's Islamic underground, a plot that is about to explode on the other side of the English Channel, in the middle of London.

The target of this plot is Elizabeth Halton, the daughter of the American ambassador to the Court of St. James's, who is to be brutally kidnapped. Gabriel arrives seconds too late to save her. And by revealing his face to the plot's masterminds, his fate is sealed as well. Drawn once more into the service of American intelligence, Gabriel hurls himself into a desperate search for the missing woman as the clock ticks steadily toward the hour of her execution. It will take him from Amsterdam to Germany to the very end of Denmark. It will thrust him into an unlikely alliance with a man who has lost everything because of his devotion to Islam. It will cause him to question the morality of the tactics of his trade. And it might very well cost him his life.

Filled with breathtaking double and triple turns of plot, and a final mind-bending sequence that will leave readers breathless, The Secret Servant is not only a work of supreme entertainment, but also an exploration of some of the most daunting issues of our times: the war on terrorism, the weapons the West uses to wage it, and the time bomb now ticking in the heart of Western Europe.

Newsday

Daniel Silva brings new life to the international thriller.

Publishers Weekly

Paul Gigante, who read Silva's Secret Servant, resumes his outstanding rendering of Gabriel Allon and his crew of Israeli counterterrorism experts. Once again, Gigante highlights Allon's strange blend of artist and assassin by giving him a quiet yet thoroughly persuasive voice. Gigante also deftly handles Silva's large, polyglot cast of arms dealers, terrorists, art dealers, wives, mistresses and even children. He does less well with the new Russian characters, Ivan and Elena, who speak with thick Russian accents, but use Anglicized pronunciations of their own names. Ivan sounds macho and threatening, but Elena is played with too much emotionalism, which detracts from the credibility of her decision to endanger her children and herself. Gigante's quick pace and narrative skill will keep listeners enthralled. A Putnam hardcover (Reviews, May 26 ). (July)

Library Journal

In New York Times best-selling author Silva's eighth Gabriel Allon thriller (following The Secret Servant , an LJ Best Audiobook of 2007), the master Israeli spy and talented art restorer must stop a former KGB colonel-turned-wealthy capitalist from selling Russia's most sophisticated weapons to Middle Eastern terrorists. Reader Phil Gigante (The Secret Servant ) does an excellent job with the dialog-heavy text, effectively using different accents to bring the international cast of characters to life. Highly recommended for public libraries. [Audio clip available through library.brillianceaudio.com; the Putnam hc, released in July, was a #1 New York Times best seller and received a starred review, LJ 7/08.-Ed.]-Ilka Gordon, formerly with Marcell Community Coll., Cleveland

Library Journal

Silva stalwart Gabriel Allon is back, investigating the murder of terrorism analyst Ephraim Rosner by a Muslim immigrant in Amsterdam. The plot thickens with the kidnapping of the U.S. ambassador's daughter in London. With a three-week tour. Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

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