Customer Reviews

The English Girl (Gabriel Allon)

I wish the real world had someone like Gabriel Allon--art restorer, spy, and master assassin-(though it would be nice to avoid the last category) who was able to solve kidnappings, capture criminals, and expose corruption as quickly and completely as he does. We don't, so we have to settle for imaginary ones.
In THE ENGLISH GIRL, a beautiful, intelligent young woman, Madeline Hart, was on vacation in Corsica with friends from work when she disappeared. Madeline worked for England's Prime Minister and was on her way to notable success in government but her disappearance is not reported to the usual authorities. With an election coming up, the Prime Minister, Jonathan Lancaster, doesn't want the story publicized because it might harm his chances of reelection: Madeline is his mistress.
A month later, he received a ransom note with very little information but saying if the demands weren't met, she would be killed in seven days. Gabriel Allon was called in but Lancaster and his close advisor, Jeremy Fallon, refused to follow Allon's advice for the negotiation. The kidnappers demand they want $10,000,000 pounds to be delivered by Allon. He agreed to be the courier and built a team to help determine who kidnapped her and why as well.
Just when everything should be settled, everything fell apart instead. (Hint: in a book of almost 475 pages, you know it won't be solved by page 212.)
The plot takes him to Corsica, France, England and Russia where he met several characters from previous books and introduces some new ones. Like all of Daniel Silva's books, there are many twists and things are not always what they seem to be. The end of the book points to a different life for Allon. Should be very interesting.
The wonderful writing is fast-paced cohesive. Once you know the motive or the probable bad guy, Silva keeps you wondering what Gabriel is going to do with that information. My only complaint is that Silva has fallen victim to the current writing practice of underestimating (I hope) the intelligence of his readers by having short chapters and repeating information previously presented as the characters mentally review what they know.
He refers to several of his previous Allon books when he introduces some of the characters and location that were in those books but those references don't leave you wondering what he's talking about. A new reader might be encouraged to read some of the previous ones and veteran fans might want to reread them to capture what they've forgotten.
THE ENGLISH GIRL proves why Daniel Silva's books consistently appear on the New York Times bestsellers list.

First of all: if you're a fan of Silva's Gabriel Allon books, just go ahead and buy this one already, Silva delivers again.

If you're new to Silva, I see no reason not to start right here: Gabriel Allon, an Israeli agent with a legendary background partly arising from his involvement in the targeting of Black September after the Munich Olympics, is called out of his peaceful semi-retirement in Tel Aviv to assist a friend in finding a missing woman. This isn't just an ordinary missing girl, but a young woman with a bright future in British politics that has some strong connections that run all the way to the top. Without giving away the plot, Allon pursues the woman across the globe, running into both new enemies and old ones that he has encountered along the way.

I don't want to give away the details of the plot, but I can say without spoiling the book and Silva has written a novel that encompasses both the standard, thrilling global crime mystery and a beautifully written character study. Unlike some other books in this genre, Silva writes about both the chase and the players involved equally. All of his characters come alive on the pages, and Silva excels and detailing the settings in a way that will make you feel like you are there. As a result, while the plot drives the action, this is a book that is enjoyable to read beyond merely finding out whodunnit.

That said, I burned through the pages of this book, wanting to find out what happens next. This would be a perfect book for a long airplane ride, or equally while lounging on the beach. My only warning is that once you read this one, you'll likely be picking up the rest of Silva's books in the near future.

The Amazon summary gives the facts well. I have read all of the Allon books. I loved the first 6 or more, but have found diminishing returns, of which this book, although a good, fast read, is a good example (without spoilers which would be additional examples):

1. I found the plot predictable; the climax not very suspenseful; and the return to Moscow too familiar and lacking the Jewish historical reviews he has done so well of countries Allon visits for the first time.

2. What used to be a wonderfully realistic series in most respects now features a nonJewish Russian who fled to London and gave away an $18 billion company for Allon; an almost omniscient Corsican fortune teller; an assassin for hire and his boss with a heart of gold when Allon needs them.

3. Allon should be 60+ years old, but still has tremendous strength?

4. Allon and his team are too perfect and predictable in every aspect of their work and behavior, although Allon shows much more ego than ever before. His team members remain 1 dimensional.

5. Describing America as financially bankrupt compared to the rest of the world shows he should listen to his wife's colleagues at NBC more often when they report the worse economic status of the EU, Japan and China.

It is very difficult to keep a long series interesting and Silva does it better than most--much better than Lee Child, Stephen Hunter, Vince Flynn or Brad Thor and as well or better than Alex Berenson. Silva fans will still like it, but I suspect not list it among their favorites. Those new to Silva will rate it higher and should then read the series from the start. Readers looking for more realistic novels with similar themes and quality writing should try Gerald Seymour.

Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon series books - plots, characters, settings- have unfortunately devolved into a very predictible pattern. While "The English Girl" contains of a sense of humor in the two main characters' dialogue, the first re-appearance of some former characters, a stubborn goat, and a bit of a surprise ending (though there are enough hints to drive a Mercedes S sedan through), it is really the same in virtually all respects, including an almost identical plot, to Silva's prior Allon novels. There seems to be a template that is the basis for them. As the novel begins, Gabriel [short black hair, ash colored near the scalp; long straight nose; olive skin; emerald green eyes; clad in cordueroy jeans and rubber soled shoes] is once again temporarily restoring a painting for [Isherwood; the Pope]in [Rome] [somewhere else in Italy; a cottage in the Cornwall Coast in England;his/the Office's apartment in Israel]. (Actually, the last book before this will give you a clue where Gabriel is). Chiara [riotous brown hair; turned up brown eyes with flecks of gold, soft round warm breasts, long legs) is happily [doing something, which of course includes singing an Italian pop song because she is happy). Their quiet life is of course interrupted by [a bombing; a killing; a kidnapping; a threatened bombing or kidnapping]. Allon is contacted by [Adrian Carter; Seymour; Ali Shamron] to help. He is torn between continuing his restorative work and going back out as a killer on the [road, air, water]. In order to help him make his decision, he is compelled to meet with [the Pope; the British, Israeli or other Prime Ministers; the US President] in order to understand the importance of the proposed mission and the need for his personal services. There are car and motorcycle chases, lots of Mercedes S sedans, familiar safe houses, Gabriel's same "team" with their strengths and quirks. Even the descriptions, in addition to the above, are the same: Mikhail is still "Gabriel without a conscience." Ari's face is still like leather; he still smokes Turkish cigarettes, wears khaki pants and moves his cigarette lighter two left, 2 right; back to being estranged from his promoted son, no mention of his daughter this time. Uzi is still wearing fashionable glasses picked out by his wife and cheating on her dietary restrictions. Uzi is still aware he is not the first choice to be Director of Intelligence. Gabriel is still "like a son" to Shamron. Muslims are involved. Russians are involved. The venue includes [England; the US; Italy; France; a Muslim country; Israel; one or more of the above]. Yep, everything is pretty much the same in Silva's Allon-land.

With each new Silva book in the Allon series, the page count increases and the action decreases. These books have turned formulaic and predictable, with similar events occurring in every book. Only the terrorists and women in distress are different. They are talky and lacking in the momentum and tension that made the earlier ones so interesting--and even those from four and five years ago. Get it from the library.

In the thirteenth thriller in the Gabriel Allon series, Silva has the art restorer/supposedly retired spy-assassin involved in investigating the kidnapping of a young woman who is a rising star in Britain's governing party -- and who is also the mistress of the Prime Minister. This investigation, which Allon is quietly handling as a personal favor to the Prime Minister in order to try to avoid a scandal that could destroy his career, leads Allon, and eventually his usual team of Israeli Intelligence operatives, on a mission that will take them to Marseilles, Provence, London and, finally, to Moscow. Typical in all books in this series, Allon and his team devise intricate, down-to-the minute plans laden with risk throughout the complex, multi-layered mission. Also reminiscent of most books in this series, the plot in Silva's The English Girl seems to be ripped from today's newspaper headlines. And, of course, consistent in a Silva thriller, his latest book is one of slow-building but non-stop tension and suspense that will likely make the reader anxious to turn the pages to find out what happens next.

In the absolute, I enjoyed The English Girl very much and consider it, as I have all of the other books featuring Gabriel Allon, to be very engrossing, well-researched and well-written. However, on a comparative basis, while I enjoyed The English Girl, my level of enjoyment was somewhat lower than in some of the earlier books in this series. In small part, this is due to the action that occurs being not quite as intense. The larger factor contributing to my comparative drop in enjoyment is that, after reading all thirteen Gabriel Allon books, the successful formula on which Silva has based his series is "showing some age lines" and the development of his main and key supporting characters need some freshening up. Silva obviously feels the same, as he strongly leads his readers to believe in The English Girl that he has important changes planned for Gabriel Allon (as well as for some other characters often part of this series) in his next book.

Despite these comparative criticisms, I still consider Silva to be the "gold standard" of thriller writers -- although the quality of the gold may now have depreciated a bit from 18k to 14k. For me, there has never been a risk involved in reading a Silva book, with the only unknown being whether the book will be very good or excellent.

A new book by Daniel Silva has been a much awaited event. And I have lent copies many times over enlisting new fans in the process. The quality of prose, quality well thought through plotting, engaging characters and crisply written insights into history or geo-politics have set Daniel Silva apart as a writer. Gabriel Allon has been a great creation.
Sadly "The English Girl" fell short early in the book and never picked up any momentum. It found no fan in me. I am hoping the explanation is that the book was written in a rush to meet the publishing deadline and on this occasion the result was formulaic and thin. Where was the creative premise and plot development that have distinguished his previous books? Maybe we have come to expect too much? Perhaps Silva allowed less time in this last year to regenerate his juice, find his mojo and then develop the ideas. The characters were thin, and one dimensional, the plot devices to build tension were clumsy and heavy and the plot turns were sadly predictable and so stretching credibility . As a read this was as uninteresting as it was unrewarding. There were no examples of wonderful prose in the English Girl (To read an example of Silva in wonderful prose mode - try the description of russians in the ski resorts in one of his previous books). Where was the complex dark and fearsome enemy, where were the nail biters in the plotting and the geo-political or historical insights.? Russia - we have been there. And it was better last time. How did such implausible plotting find its way into this book?
A couple of examples - having located the villa - did the professionals really return to their hotel? Why did the bad guys allow Silva to live? there was no "tearing up france in search" - . and If they knew of Keller's existence why allow him to live? And the israeli's allowing keller into their team... - implausable and frankly poorly written. the tensions for Gabriel to become head of Israeli Intelligence and the dialogue with Navot - unsophisticated and clumsy. The fortune - teller - worked once for a man lost with a darkness in his soul, but contrived as a plot device for Gabriel and even more contrived as a plot device for Chiara. These characters doing things which were out of character... crossed over the boundaries of "suspending disbelief".
Too many things were implausible and motivations thin or lacking the credibility.
On this occasion expectations for the great "Silva Summer Read" were greater than the realisation. Matter of fact about it - Silva has had a great run with Gabriel Allon and the Fallen Angel was a stretch - but the writing was much better. (was The English Girl ghost written??)
I hope Silva takes a break and regenerates his juice. For his hero needs a strong premise and compelling mission against the backdrop of a geo-political scenario that is engaging otherwise we can celebrate that we have been lucky to have read the best Silva has to offer and be appreciative of the literary journeys he has taken us on in this past decade.

Considering Daniel Silva's other Gabriel Allon books, this one stands alone as a disappointment. The first half of the book is essentially an extended chase. It's gratuitously long, even tedious. The second half of the book left me with a sense of deja vu. There is a twist near the end but even that is rather ho-hum. His detailed descriptions of places, e.g. London and Moscow, left me with the feeling that he wanted a tax deduction for his travels. Bah!

Overall Daniel Silva can, and HAS, done much, much better.

Wasn't an interesting book for me but it does have a surprise ending. I don't recommend it. It was slow reading.

I have read each of Daniel Silva's books and clearly have my favorites. I found Silva's earliest novels with Gabriel Allon his best work. I recall not being able to put down Silva's earliest novels often staying awake until 2-3am devouring chapter upon chapter. However, I find Silva's latest efforts lacking in the pace and action that I enjoyed once.

Of late, i find myself reading a chapter or less each time I open his latest book. Gone are the page-turners for me.

It seems to me that Silva's books are being written lately more by the pound (exceeding 400+ pages) than by the plot. The English Girl is easily 100 pages beyond the plot.

LT