The Kill Artist
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REVIEW BY KELLY KOEPKE
Daniel Silva's new thriller, The Kill Artist, is so gripping I devoured the entire 400-plus pages in just two days. A taut yet elegant tale of espionage, the novel moves from Europe and the Middle East to Canada and the United States in a twisted plot of revenge, unrequited love and political maneuvering. Silva's new hero, ex-Mossad assassin turned reclusive art restorer Gabriel Allon, is a man with a past, and his past is about to catch up with him. Years earlier, Gabriel's wife and son were killed by Tariq, a PLO operative. Now Gabriel is pulled away from his solitary existence in the art world to stop Tariq's latest assassination attempt. Tariq is involved in a plot to kill a world leader (and anyone else who gets in the way) and sabotage the peace negotiations in the Middle East. A more timely premise could not be found, and the novel effectively plays "what if" with the current Middle East crisis. Gabriel recruits Jacqueline, a French model and former Mossad agent with secrets of her own, for this one last job. But will Gabriel risk Jacqueline's life to take vengeance and prevent chaos from overtaking the Holy Land? This is what kept me awake at night and glued to the page the next day. Silva doesn't take the easy route to a happy ending, which might disappoint his readers. He has the ability to make the most reviled villain seem human, and gives his heroes just enough ambiguity to seem real. Silva's time as a journalist and CNN executive producer, covering everything from Washington politics to Middle East conflicts, is evidenced in The Kill Artist. Details gleaned from his research into the inner workings of the PLO and the cutthroat world of international art brings settings and characters alive, as each comes up against the complications of romance in the rich, murky underworld of the spy. Ultimately, Silva's sharply honed characters, his intimate knowledge of the Israeli intelligence community and "I never saw it coming" plot twists demonstrate that this new novel is destined to be his latest international bestseller. Kelly Koepke is a writer in Albuquerque.
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