Edoardo Ballerini creates a suspense-filled performance of Daniel Silva's latest thriller featuring Gabriel Allon, master art restorer and former chief of "the Office," Israel's espionage agency. Living in Venice with his wife and children, Allon is summoned to Amalfi by the Carabinieri Art Squad to assist in the investigation of a murder and the recovery of a major painting from the Dutch Golden Age. Allon soon discovers the painting is linked to international intrigue involving his enemies in Russia and their war against Ukraine. Ballerini's narration pairs well with Silva's taut plotting. He builds tension with subtle changes in tone and cadence, making use of the characters' vocal distinctions and perfectly delivering the urgency of the story's drama. An author's note separates fact from fiction. S.G. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

"Relevant and richly entertaining." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Bravo, Mr. Silva. Bravo!” — Best Thriller Books

Edoardo Ballerini creates a suspense-filled performance of Daniel Silva's latest thriller featuring Gabriel Allon, master art restorer and former chief of "the Office," Israel's espionage agency. Living in Venice with his wife and children, Allon is summoned to Amalfi by the Carabinieri Art Squad to assist in the investigation of a murder and the recovery of a major painting from the Dutch Golden Age. Allon soon discovers the painting is linked to international intrigue involving his enemies in Russia and their war against Ukraine. Ballerini's narration pairs well with Silva's taut plotting. He builds tension with subtle changes in tone and cadence, making use of the characters' vocal distinctions and perfectly delivering the urgency of the story's drama. An author's note separates fact from fiction. S.G. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

★ 2023-08-12
A lost masterpiece and a professional hit lure the world’s most famous spy back into the field.

Summoned by an old friend to the Amalfi Coast, Gabriel Allon finds a murder scene and an empty stretcher that could have held only one painting, a painting of inestimable value that has been missing for decades—Vermeer’s The Concert, stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in 1990. Allon’s search for this cultural treasure leads him to an alliance with a Danish IT consultant—and gifted thief—and it will require the assistance of the team he once led as head of Israel’s intelligence service. As Silva’s fans will expect, this hunt for a work of art will quickly turn into something much bigger—maybe a rush to avert World War III? Over the course of 22 novels featuring Allon, Silva has vacillated between escapism and realpolitik. This installment is a near-perfect combination of both. One of the pleasures of a Gabriel Allon novel is that it allows us entrée into a world few will ever experience. But even as he might leave readers sighing over a Versace gown or a Michelin-starred meal, Silva asks us to take a hard look at what money can do. He shows us an underground economy in which irreplaceable works of art are used as currency or collateral—or, at best, end up in private vaults where they are protected but inaccessible. And the same wealth that makes commissioning the theft of a well-known and well-guarded masterpiece possible makes murder easy. None of which is to say that this is an anti-capitalist screed. This is a thriller, and it satisfies in the ways that a thriller should while also offering food for thought. And if the plot hinges on one absolutely outrageous coincidence… well, Silva’s fans will likely be willing to allow him that.

Relevant and richly entertaining.