I much enjoyed this second Gabriel Allon novel and note the beginnings of his ascension into a top notch defender of Isreal against murdering Nazi thieves and their allies. 10 of 10 stars

Gabriel goes to Switzerland and has a blast (*pun*). No really, this book is an excellent follow-up to The Kill Artist. Gabriel goes full Bond in this story especially the ending.And yeah, the Swiss suck.

3.5 starsWhile this is number two in the series, somehow I read it after #3. That didn’t seem to matter. The plot and rhythms, and even the characters, worked better for me than the other two, but not so much that I’m inspired to round to 4, and not so much that I can leave this series on my active list. I’ll step aside now and stop working so hard to make it fit. But if I was going to start this series, I would start here.

In this second installment of the Gabriel Allon series we find our sensitive and scarred spy taking on the Swiss bankers who helped the Nazis during WWII and are still hiding old Jewish money and treasure under the boardwalks of Zurich. As in the first novel, "The Kill Artist (Gabriel Allon)", the reluctant Israeli spy Gabriel Allon is joined by a world famous woman, this time though she is a violinist named Anna Rolfe, on his adventures. As in his previous novels, Mr. Silva brings back characte...

Gabriel Allon, the reluctant Israeli intelligence officer and art restorer is back in the second installment of Daniel Silva's series. Framed for murder, he is drawn into a world of Nazi art theft, corrupt Swiss bankers and a trail of murder that leads to secrets that a deadly assassin will try to silence.Silva is a fine storyteller. The journalist in him once again weaves fact with fiction to create a fast-paced, intelligent thriller with plenty of action, colored with cultural and historical r...

Just when the good guy is really in deep trouble, gun shots firing everywhere, my husband's lawn mower backfired giving me quite a start. That must be the mark of a good book, no?

To me there have always been two classes of thrillers : 1. Too much carnage and mayhem : Where the key figures in the plot line go, bodies drop like flies swatted out of the air and things tend to get destroyed. The factor of disinterest that I have in such a genre is that the mind goes numb to all this damage.2. The silent,subtle kind of a thriller : Not much of a noise & the plot drives the adrenaline rush through the reader's veins. Needless to say it requires the steady hands of a seasoned e...

Some of my friends mentioned Daniel Silva, so I thought I'd give him a shot with The English Assassin. The title had a certain ring to it. I would say my thoughts on this are mixed. As far as the plot goes, very compelling, but to me, there was a lot going on and so the story seemed to jump around. I am okay with jumping around from place to place, but timeline wise, I got lost and there were several chapters that went by before one chapter that introduced something was resolved, hence the timel...

I have just finished reading the second book in the Gabriel Allon series, The English Assassin by Daniel Silva. One of the things that separates the Gabriel Allon series from other spy thrillers is that Gabriel works for Israeli intelligence. He is often considered such a good spy because he can kill without getting too emotional about it. In fact, critics say he may not have blood in his veins, which, I guess, is a way to say he is too robotic, or workmanlike. In the spy thrillers I have read,

A Wonderful Surprise - 5 Stars My expectations were low going into this novel. I read the first in the series in 2013 and honestly I have completely forgotten the plot. The first story felt tired and average. Quite unexpectedly, the second book in the series blew me away and kept me interested from the start. Plot The world's most deadly art restorer is called into action when the Israeli government is contacted by Swiss banker who has some information he wishes to share. Sensing that there

#2 in the Gabriel Allon series.This time round Gabriel Allon has the Gnomes of Zurich in his sights.During the 2nd World War a lot of the world’s great painting masterpieces were stolen by the Nazis and given to the bankers of Zurich for safe keeping. Many of these painting were owned by the then persecuted Jews. Under Swiss law “if an item is unclaimed after 5 years that item then becomes the property of the person who currently is in possession of it”. The Israel’s want the painting returned t...

3.5 stars A nice way to pass the time. It wasn't great but I enjoyed it.

Again being the forever optimist I started reading the English "assassin" by Daniel Silva as a follow-up to his first book in the series about 'Israeli secret agent' Gabriel Allon. Mr. Silva's writing style is very ingenuous and descriptive and despite several lackluster plot scenes in the first book I wanted to give the series another shot. Not good! What followed in this book is Gabriel attempting to unravel some of Switzerland's most influential high-power political elite which had Nazi-affil...

‘Switzerland is not a real country. It’s a business, and it’s run like a business. It’s a business that is constantly in a defensive posture. It’s been that way for seven hundred years.’First published in 2002, The English Assassin is the second in the series in which Gabriel Allon, art restorer and occasional “fixer” for the Israeli government, is commissioned to restore a Raphael for a Swiss banker, Auguste Rolfe. He arrives at the house in Zurich to find the banker dead from a bullet wound to...

When Gabriel Allon, art restorer in present, a spy in the past (and occasionally in the present), is sent to Zurich to restore a painting owned by mysterious reclusive Swiss banker, he never thought that it would be the first event in a series of events that would lead to a horrifying, shocking discovery. He founds the banker dead and Gabriel finds himself a suspect in the murder. But he soon discovers it's just the tip of the iceberg, as the murdered banker reached out to Israeli Intelligence s...

Fast paced, action packed, page turning fun! Great read.