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THE English Assassin

By: Daniel Silva
Binding: Audio CD
Publisher: Random House Audible
ISBN: 0553713310
ISBN-13: 9780553713312
Released: 01 Mar 2002
RRP: £15.99
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

Silva doesn't dissapoint! - By: Rory Morty, 28 Jul 2005
In this novel, the second in the "Gabriel Allon" series, Daniel Silva takes us into the murky world of money & power behind that spectacular scenic facade that is Switzerland to most us. On the down-side, unlike The Kill Artist & The Confessor, in this novel, Silva seems to have some difficulty tying the novel together. Hence my three-star award. However, this should in no way discourage any propective reader from giving this book a try. It is vintage Silva, & it is an excellent read. As always, Silva's characters are very well developed, & it was great to see Gabrial Allon & Ari Shamron in action again. Allon is dispatched to Switzerland alllegedly to restore a painting. Upon his arrival there, he finds his employer murdered, & has a tangle with the Swiss police, although he is released shortly afterwards. The story takes off from there, with Allon taking on a secret power structure within Switzerland with a very shady past. While I place this novel third amongst the first three "Gabriel Allon" novels, it remains an excellent & exciting read, & I highly recommend it.
A Suspense Spy Thriller That's As Good As It Gets! - By: Jana L. Perskie, 07 Mar 2005
The "English Assassin" was my introduction to author Daniel Silva, & to his protagonist, Gabriel Allon expert art restorer & occasional Israeli spy. This intelligently written, international espionage thriller, filled with intrigue & vengeance, is as good is it gets. Mr. Silva's style is reminiscent, but not derivative, of Ken Follett, Frederick Forsyth & John LeCarre. He is definitely in their league & oh, so original, with his 21st century relevant storyline. I have waited for a long time for an author of this caliber to appear & keep me on the edge of my seat, reading through the night. I was unable to put this book down.

Gabriel Allon is a brilliant Israeli art restorer, residing in Cornwalll, England. He is a complex, melancholy man - not much humor here. Allon had worked for many years as an Israeli intelligence agent, & assassin, (when necessary), losing his young son & wife to violence as a consequence of his work. Now he just wants to restore paintings & be left alone with his torment & his guilt.

Allon is coerced back to active spy duty when he is asked to go to Zurich to clean the work of an Old Master for a Swiss millionaire banker. He arrives at his clients house only to find the man dead at his feet - murdered, obviously. Allon has too much of a history in Switzerland to calll the police, so he attempts to flee the country. He is caught within a half hour, (pretty fast, even for the Swiss), & framed for the murder. Thus begins a chain of events that pairs Allon with the dead banker's beautiful, violin virtuoso daughter, as they seek the killer & the motive. Their search takes them alll over Europe, where they begin to uncover secrets dealing with Nazi art theft, international conspiracy, priceless hidden treasures buried in Swiss vaults, a decade-old suicide, multiple murders, & a very mysterious English assassin. This assassin fellow is one of my favorite villains - & his Corsican friends are just too much!

Mr. Silva's characters are believable & fascinating. His plots & subplots are beautifully developed & gripping; his historical detail is on the money. What more could you ask for in a novel? I cannot wait to get my hands on more of his books. Hopefully when I catch-up & read what I have missed, Mr. Silva will have written another winner.
JANA

WHAT A GREAT BOOK! - By: Mark O'Neill, 13 Jun 2004
I became hooked on Daniel Silva's work after someone loaned me "The Unlikely Spy" (which I have read three times!). "The English Assassin" was my first introduction to Gabriel & I was hooked from beginning to end. Although the ending threw me a little - why did the assassin act the way he did? Silva doesn't quite explain it & we are left wondering. Nevertheless, a great book & highly recommended! I guarantee you won't look at Switzerland the same way again!
Silva is the man - By: , 23 Jul 2003
Daniel Silva writes with a skill & which surely ranks him amongst the great modern thriller writers. The English Assasin brings back the hero of The Kill Artist, the Art Restorer turned Israeli superspy, Gabriel Allon. A character who is both cold-blooded & yet provides a human interest.
Perhaps the most interesting characters are the eccentric Swiss violinest Anna Rolfe & the delightfully Machiavellian Ari Shamron, head of Mossad.The English Assasin is a novel of Swiss Swindling, of fine art & ruthless villans. It is both imformative & approachable. And provides a very good read.
Silva writes for art's sake! - By: Billy J. Hobbs, 18 Apr 2002
Indeed, as the liner jacket notes & other reviewers have readily stated, Daniel
Silva & “The English Assassin” are “in the style of Robert Ludlum.” Whether that’s
hailed as a compliment or not, of course, remains to be seen.

First, indeed, “The English
Assassin” is “shades of Ludlum.” It is fast paced (faster than much of Ludlum’s last
novels), involves an international James Bond-like special governmental agent (this time,
an Israeli agent cum art restorer), & is alll awash in a grander than life consipiracy
(did anyone mention Robert Ludlum!!!) in which, like the definition of a grand epic hero,
the whole world depends upon his--and his alone--actions to rid us of such Evil. (In this
case, it’s the Swiss cover-up, involvement, & dishonesty, with their complicity with the
Nazis during World War II.).

Ludlum it is, & Ludlum it is not. For one, the plot line is
greatly reminiscent of Ludlum; for two, however, Silva is Ludlum without the long (and
now boring) sermons on left-wing conspiracies to take over the civilized world. Silva
also is not the pedantic Ludlum (one doesn’t need a dictionary with Silva).
That said (and cleared), “The English Assassin” (if one gets past alll this Ludlum
stuff) is actuallly worth the read. It is exciting & Silva gives us a decent “arts and
humanities” lesson as the central character, one late-40ish Gideon Allon who is enlisted by the
Israeli government to mount a very clandestine inquiry into uncovering much about the
Swiss involvement with their nasty Nazy neighbors. Untold numbers of valuable paintings,
from Old Masters to “moderns” were “confiscated” & then deposited in Swiss banks in
exchange, sometimes, for currency to help the Nazis; in other situations, the paintings--not
to mention other treasures & money--were simply deposited in numbered accounts in
which they reside today, unclaimed, beneath the streets of Zurich!
Allon is sent to “restore” an Old Master (a Raphael)and, voila, he finds the owner,
wealthy & powerful banker Augustus Rolfe, brutallly murdered. Before Allon can get out of Switzerland, he
is arrested as a suspect & from there on, the plot reallly thickens & the pace quickens. The game is
afoot! Allon becomes involved (yes) with Rolfe’s daughter, who just happens to be
incredibly beautiful young woman and, of course, the world’s greatest living violinist (and, yes, she & Gideon "fiddle around" a bit!).
Besides giving us a very interesting lesson in the fine arts (although I am not sure
about “rolling up” the canvases of Old Masters to smuggle them out!), Silva gives us a very
interesting geography lesson, as Allon zooms back & forth across Europe--from London
to Portugal to Austria & back. This, too, is worthwhile, especiallly if one has been so
fortunate to have been in those places!
“Penzler’s Pick” notes that “Daniel Silva, author of several previous thrillers,
delivers a classic novel of multiple secrets & myriad betrayals.” I am not sure how many
“classic novels” this Penzler has read, but “classic” is NOT a descriptive to be assigned to
“The English Assassin.” Discerning readers of this genre will be a bit disappointed, if they
expect such.