Many of us who enjoy crime and espionage fiction are reluctant to pick up the latest installment of a series that has been up and running for several years.
Thinking we must start at the beginning of a detective or spy’s adventures, we put off adding another author to our reading list until we have time to go back to the first book and work our way through.
This is a good way to miss lots of fine new books each year.
Case in point — Daniel Silva’s just-published “Moscow Rules” (Putnam), the eighth installment in an increasingly popular series of novels about the Israeli intelligence officer (and art restorer) Gabriel Allon.
I had been hearing very good things about Silva’s books from friends for the past decade, but already had lots of my recreational reading time carved out each year for the latest Lisa Scottoline, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, James Lee Burke etc. etc.
Well, providence came in the form of Silva kicking off his national book tour in Stamford and New Canaan this week and my having to read “Moscow Rules” for the author interview that ran in my Sunday “Book Beat” column.
It was clear from the first few chapters that I was being introduced to a character who has been through some pretty exciting adventures — casually referred to by Gabriel and his associates in the opening pages — but the novel stood alone as a thrilling account of the agent’s search for the killer (or killers) behind a series of assassinations directed against Russian journalists.
Silva takes us into the bizarre and dangerous world of post-communist Russia where designer goods boutiques have sprouted in the shadows of the Kremlin and dangerous criminal forces may be forming alliances with our terrorist enemies.
“Moscow Rules” suggests we have entered a new Cold War with Russia, one that might be even more complex and frightening than the one we waged against Soviet Russia for most of the 20th century.
Gabriel Allon is a wonderful character, a mix of aesthete and man of action. The man has no sooner married and settled into a relaxing honeymoon/art restoration job in Umbria, Italy, when he is called upon by his Israeli bosses to meet a Russian journalist who has come to Rome. The reporter wants to share information about some sort of vague terrorist threat against the West that is being fueled by one of the new Russian business moguls.
Silva is a journalist-turned-novelist and he delivers a mix of page-turning thrills, travelogue and contemporary political expose that most readers will devour in a few sittings.
Now, I want to go back to the beginning — the first Allon book is “The Kill Artist” — and read my way through what appears to be a great series.
(Daniel Silva will be talking about “Moscow Rules” tonight at 6 p.m. at the Stamford Town Center Barnes & Noble store and on Thursday at noon at the New Canaan Library.)
