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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