Daniel Silva has done it again in this exciting twelfth novel featuring spymaster and expert art restorer Gabriel Allon. In The Fallen Angel, our hero’s concerns are both current and historic. He references the Munich Olympics massacres, confronts the Islamic fundamentalist terror network, the underground trade in looted antiquities, money laundering, steganography (concealed writing), restoration of great masterpieces, the idea of Taqiyya (displaying one intention while harboring another), the Pope’s evolving relationship with Israel and the Holocaust, and Temple denial. We are supplied with maps of Vatican City and the Old City of Jerusalem and visit Rome, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Paris, St. Moritz, Vienna, and Berlin. We admire fine art while learning details about ancient pottery, sculpture, and classical paintings.
Allon has a close relationship with the Pope, having saved his life in a previous episode. A murder in the Vatican is explained as suicide to the press. The Pope’s private secretary has a questionable past that must be kept secret to avoid a Vatican scandal. The Pope requests Allon as his personal bodyguard on a momentous mission to Jerusalem. Jerusalem Syndrome and apocalyptic ideas converge on land holy to three faiths. While the Pope leads his entourage to the fourteen Stations of the Cross, a plot to destroy the Temple Mount is discovered by Israeli intelligence. Allon’s expert team must avert a cataclysmic disaster. This loyal reader could not help but race breathlessly through the tale to reach its satisfying end.
The writing and research in this book, as in the entire series, are impeccable. This furiously fast read cleverly disguises the huge amount of historical knowledge to be gained by fans of Silva. Allon’s heartbreaking back story and tender scenes with his wife provide moments of humanity to our sharpshooting idol. An author’s note reveals the truths that are within the fictional story.
Additional Titles by Daniel Silva
Miriam Bradman Abrahams, mom, grandmom, avid reader, sometime writer, born in Havana, raised in Brooklyn, residing in Long Beach on Long Island. Longtime former One Region One Book chair and JBC liaison for Nassau Hadassah, currently presenting Incident at San Miguel with author AJ Sidransky who wrote the historical fiction based on her Cuban Jewish refugee family’s experiences during the revolution. Fluent in Spanish and Hebrew, certified hatha yoga instructor.