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The Secret Servant (Unabridged) | 
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Category: Audible
List Price: $38.95
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Rating:  110 reviews
Media: Audio Download
ASIN: B0019VLBA2
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Product Description
He has been called his generation's finest writer of international intrigue, one of America's most gifted spy novelists ever, and the successor to Graham Greene and John le Carr. But with his follow-up to the 2006 electrifying number one bestseller The Messenger, Daniel Silva has written his most compelling and entertaining novel to date. When last we encountered Gabriel Allon, the master art restorer and sometime officer of Israeli intelligence, he had just prevailed in his blood-soaked duel with Saudi terrorist financier Zizi al-Bakari. Now Gabriel is summoned once more by his masters to undertake what appears to be a routine assignment: travel to Amsterdam to purge the archives of a murdered Dutch terrorism analyst who also happened to be an asset of Israeli intelligence. But once in Amsterdam, Gabriel soon discovers a conspiracy of terror festering in the city's Islamic underground, a plot that is about to explode on the other side of the English Channel, in the middle of London. The target of this plot is Elizabeth Halton, the daughter of the American ambassador to the Court of St. James's, who is to be brutally kidnapped. Gabriel arrives seconds too late to save her. And by revealing his face to the plot's masterminds, his fate is sealed as well. Drawn once more into the service of American intelligence, Gabriel hurls himself into a desperate search for the missing woman as the clock ticks steadily toward the hour of her execution. It will take him from Amsterdam to Germany to the very end of Denmark. It will thrust him into an unlikely alliance with a man who has lost everything because of his devotion to Islam. It will cause him to question the morality of the tactics of his trade. And it might very well cost him his life. Filled with breathtaking double and triple turns of plot, and a final mind-bending sequence that will leave readers breathless, The Secret Servant is not only a work of supreme entertainment, but also an exploration of some of the most daunting issues of our times: the war on terrorism, the weapons the West uses to wage it, and the time bomb now ticking in the heart of Western Europe.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 105 more reviews...
 Already Obsolete December 24, 2008
This well-written book with its compelling story held my attention throughout. The fast-paced story is exciting and Silva does a good job of capturing the "street feel" of the locales in which the various scenes are set.
The characterizations, however, are one-dimensional. The bad guys are completely bad, totally without nuance. The good guys are noble defenders of freedom and democracy - that's "freedom" and "democracy" in the George W. Bush style.
In the end, I found Gabriel Allon to be a quite despicable character. He looks forward to killing the bad guys and does so with efficiency. He expresses mild unease at the need to torture, but then goes ahead and tortures with relish. Silva could have made his character more appealing and sympathetic had he endowed him with some doubts and misgivings, some sleepless nights about the things he has to do.
As I read this after the recent US election, this novel seemed strangely obsolete. Like one of the many excellent Soviet-era spy thrillers where the fundamental conflict no longer exists. At the end of 2008 it is clear that western governments, led by the United States, have done the world much more harm than all the terrorists who have operated since the concept of terrorism was developed in the 1960s. So presenting agents of these governments in heroic fashion creates a dissonance that a fine story cannot overcome. The idea that all Muslims are terrorists for example. Silva's characters spout the standard lines about the few spoiling it for the many, but the only Muslims we meet in the book are either current or former terrorists.
A good book for 2004. Obsolete today.
 Extremely entertaining warning - Not Politically Correct December 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Silva tells the truth about the bad guys in the middle-east in an entertaining way. He has a knack for bringing characters to life, that makes the story disturbingly real. Mr. Silva seems to understand the issue we face with Islamic radicalism.
This is the seven Silva book that I have enjoyed and all have been four or five stars. I like the fact that each book can stand alone and that a reader does not have to read the Gabriel Allon books in the order published.
Recommended Reading.
Author of al-Qaeda Strikes Again
thrilling December 22, 2008
Daniel Silva keeps outdoing himself. It seems every new book is better than the last. In The Secret Servant. Israeli intelligence works to thwart an extremist Muslim plot to overthrow the United States.
This is more of an aside than a review of this exceptionally good thriller. You may have heard the expression, Be careful what you wish for. Extremist Muslims plot to overthrow the United States; if you ask me, they are out of their minds. Nature abhors a vacuum; humanity abhors a power vacuum. In the highly unlikely event that anybody did manage to overthrow the United States, China would be the world's superpower. Speaking as an inveterate Sinophile, I have to say that if the Arabs displeased the Chinese enough to bring Chinese brawn and methods to deal with them, any surviving Muslim extremists would carry photos of George Dubya Bush in their wallets, to gaze at fondly and kiss in loving remembrance. Riling Uncle Sam is not the same as riling Dragon Hua.
Be that as it may, the extremists probably do not really want the overthrow of the US or Israel, because, as Silva points out, the US and Israel provide wonderful scapegoats and whipping boys. If the US and Israel disappeared tomorrow, fundamentalists might have to face themselves and deal with their own shortcomings; far easier to blow yourself up with explosives!
The book has a fast pace, tight construction, excellent writing, and even humor in there among the terror. Silva has produced a great thriller - again!
The Secret Servant by Daniel Silva December 8, 2008
The Secret Servant (Gabriel Allon) I ordered this item from a new seller. I often try to use a new seller to allow them to build up a record. Unfortunately, the book was never received and upon contacting the seller, she went over and above the line of duty to make things right. She sent me a new copy of this book and sent it by priority mail. I appreciate the way this was handled and would use this seller again. Hope this helps other potential buyers, don't be afraid to give the new sellers a chance. Bob
 Its No Secret, Silva's On it December 6, 2008
Sometimes reading the author is worth a lot more than what the book actually sells for. And in this case, I'd rather read something a little less than great by Silva than some of the top names in fiction. And please don't misunderstand, Silva is one of the top names! But Silva knows how to hit the nail on the head, and he sometimes adds fuel to the fire to get it real interesting. I like that!
Enjoy this one, as Gabriel Allon allows his work to take him to Amsterdam after a little discovery of his own. And when you thought that finding an U.S. ambassador's daughter was an assignment, just wait until he has some work to do in Denmark! And you simply thought that Copenhagen was good chewing tobacco! In the process, you'll find out that there just might be more to The Sphinx than you thought. But expect this to have some themes concerning post 9/11, with a possible Sword of Allah to interweave from time to time.
Silva is a natural master at his craft, and that's certainly no secret. But this one just isn't great like the other ones were. But that doesn't take anything away from the story. Does a little bit of Daniel Silva's agenda blend in with all this? Oh yeah, but that's ok. I say in the end it makes for a better story all in all. And it gets me more than ready for an adventure such as "Moscow Rules," because I know how good Silva really is. That's certainly no secret, because Silva has always been on it!
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