Monday, July 17, 2017

Crime & Beyond Book Club Reads The Black Widow by Daniel Silva





Kerry Hammond is here today to tell us about the latest book club pick from Denver-based Crime & Beyond book club. This month they discussed Daniel Silva.

Crime & Beyond met last month to discuss The Black Widow by Daniel Silva. Silva’s award winning series features art restorer and spy for Israel’s secret intelligence, Gabriel Allon. When Allon isn’t spending time with his wife, Chiara, he enjoys spending time with any masterpiece that needs his attention and skill at restoration. However, very often the real world intervenes and he is called upon to handle an assignment for Israeli Intelligence.

He is about to be promoted to the position of Chief, but his special spy skills are needed in the field when a bomb goes off in Paris, set by a terrorist named Saladin. This mastermind has covered his tracks expertly and no level of intelligence has been able to get close to him or anticipate his next move. Gabriel decides that he must recruit a new agent and place her into Saladin’s network as a spy. Dr. Natalie Mizrahi agrees to pose as an ISIS recruit and enter the terrorist’s lair.

Our club was split on the ratings for the book. Many of us really enjoyed sitting on the edge of our seats as Dr. Mizrahi got further and further involved as a recruit in ISIS. Others missed the days when Gabriel investigated the theft of a famous masterpiece and the reader was taken along for the ride.

Whether you love the story or not, the book offers a lot of topics for book club discussion. It hits both current affairs and foreign intrigue. It’s clear that a lot of research goes into Silva’s stories and his characters find themselves facing situations and decisions that we, as readers, hope to never even come close to.






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