Title:	The English Spy
	Author:	Daniel Silva
	Published:	2015, Harper
	No. of Pages:	484
	Cover Price:	$27.99 Hardcover, $14.99 Kindle

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Daniel Silva’s seventeenth novel in the Gabriel Allon series, The English Spy, finds Gabriel teaming up with Christopher Keller, former British Spy turned assassin, to stop Eamon Quinn, who has been in the death business for years, but has recently murdered a princess aboard a yacht; Quinn is best known for his bombmakng skills and he uses them often when he is hired to kill. Allon and Keller are forced to travel to several countries to find Quinn, but Quinn is a seasoned assassin, and seems to disappear as soon as his pursuers get close. As is Silva’s style, there are lots of politics involved, and these politics involve the IRA, the British, and the Russians. At one point in the novel, Gabriel jumps to a van to save a mother and child (déjà vu for him), and is reported dead.

Graham Seymore hires Keller to work with M16, the spy agency in the UK where he is in charge. Keller, like Allon, is not a rule follower, and can be a maverick when pursuing a target. At the same time, Allon’s wife, Chiara, is due to have their twins any time, and Chiara thinks her husband is dead.

Several of the characters that have been featured in previous Silva novels are mentioned here, and while the novel can be read as a standalone, it is recommended that the previous novels be read first for readers to fully understand what is happening and to be introduced to the characters.

Silva is known to be one of the most meticulous writers of thriller/suspense fiction today. His novels are well-researched, and never leave issues hanging. However, even though this novel is fascinating, especially to readers who love Gabriel Allon, it is not Silva’s best. There are parts of the novel that are a bit confusing and hard to follow. Daniel Silva’s “less-than-his-best” novels are still a cut above the novels of most of the popular suspense/thriller authors who churn out a new substandard novel every few months.

Of course fans of Israeli spy Gabriel Allon will be picking up this book immediately. Suspense/thriller fans who haven’t read the series will want to start with the first and will find they can’t put them down.

This book was purchased with personal funds and no promotion of the book was solicited by the author or publisher.

This book may be purchased at Amazon:
The English Spy
The English Spy, Kindle