Genre: Fiction—Thriller
Completed: 23 March 2012
Summary & Review:
When a group of Saudi funded
terrorists nearly succeed in destroying St. Peter’s basilica and assassinating both
the pope and Ari Shamron, the legendary head of the Israeli Mossad,
spy/art-restorer Gabriel Allon must somehow infiltrate the entourage of a rich
Saudi investor to find the man behind the attacks. Using a young American
museum curator and art historian, Allon is able to locate the mysterious
terrorist but his undercover agent is blown just as Allon is about to make his
move. Now he must save his protégé before the Saudi terror cell takes revenge.
This was, once again, another excellent entry in the
Gabriel Allon series. As usual, Silva mixes his fast paced fictional action with real
life issues and problems. In this novel he takes to task the Saudi bankrolling
of the necrotizing Wahhabi ideology and the terrorism that springs from it, and also examines the
difficult relationship between the House of Saud and the American government. I
think it seems clear that we have no business continuing to prop up the
terrorists who want to destroy us just because we need their oil since we
refuse to utilize the energy reserves we have in our own country. Or, for that matter, even to use the energy reserves in our neighbor allies. Keystone pipeline, anyone?
Rating: 8.5
No comments:
Post a Comment