The Heist: A Novel (Gabriel Allon Book 14)

I enjoy reading every word. The suspense, intrigue and human touch kept me glued through toits entirety. I obvioully really enjoyed this.

I thought the storyline both entertaining and educational, but there was a lot of "filler" material that slowed down the action.

Very informative about art, about which I am not familiar. Exciting stuff to follow to learn and get to the end. Loved the Swiss and Italian scenes.

Daniel Silva is a marvelous story teller. Characters are well defined and believable, The story line is complex and told in great detail Gabriel Allen is a master painter and restorer and a patriot to Israel. No detail is overlooked and the writer keeps the reader engaged to find out what happens next in the persuit of finding the solution to the crime being solved.

Even if you have never been introduced to Gabriel Allon, this page turner will capture your attention. I read it quickly, and now I want to read others. You will enjoy it too.

Amazon Reader’s Review of “The Heist” by Richard Dorsey, aka diogenes of californiaSilva’s The Heist, provides his usual Commedia dell’arte troupe; (a dead fallen spy, a one-eyed police chief, a master art thief, a professional killer, a piratical clan leader, a dead master art forger, the heads of M16, Israeli Intelligence, and the future chief of same, a living master art restorer, art forger and painter, banking kingpins, a supernatural soothsayer, a Russian robber baron, and a coven of shadow spies, torturers, hit men, and black market brokers interspersed with giblets of classy travel, history, art craft, and politics, including Israel’s preference for dealing with strong men and not Democracies.Instead of building on previous novels, as some of Silva’s reviewers appear to believe, the author pulls his stock characters through different doors in well worn stage scenery. We watch the protagonist, Gabriel Allon, dab and twirl and discard swabs restoring classical art, paint an entire Van Gogh in three days, and uncover stolen paintings through tiny window openings. While we watch, the author tells us repeatedly the talented artist is really a legendary spy so often it becomes annoying.The Heist is easy reading, but replete with tired maxims. It starts with an intriguing story line that the best way to find a stolen masterpiece is to steal another one. As the story unfolds we discover fascinating sidelights such as talented forgers painting over stolen masterpieces with a lesser-known artist’s work in order to use the forgery to disguise the theft.The soon to be head of Israeli Intelligence, Gabriel the Angel gathers together an entourage of thieves and killers, and hops chapter to chapter from Venice to Marseille to Jerusalem to London to Geneva to Paris to Munich to Lake Como, only to turn around and hop all over again. Then suddenly, midway through the one plot, the story turns into another; Whilst seeking the whereabouts of the priceless lost Caravaggio painting, the new plot line begins exposing politics the of maniacal political robbers. This is where we ask ourselves, what is going on here? Which is the real plot?The matter of the facts is that the whole idea of a lost masterpiece as the plot is a rather so-so concept to begin with, and the reading only becomes a page turner when the soon to be Israeli Intelligence chief and his crack team of on-loan shadowy investigators uncovers political chicanery and introduces a realistic damsel in distress, and the author allows suspense to boil and bubble over whether our damsel might actually get caught.Gabriel is a nice guy to his wife, to his mentally hobbled ex-wife, to his boss’s bossy wife, and even to the women who work for and with him to the point where he is willing to gladly give up billions to save the damsel he hardly knows. Gabriel the Angel only come across as “fallen” when dealing through intermediaries with the bad guys, which is a really weird yet acceptable characterization of the art of master spying. What I don’t understand, however, is novel’s need for the mysterious appearance of an omniscient fortuneteller, repetition of the Munich disaster, and no explanation for how in the world anyone can paint a Van Gogh indistinguishable from the original in three days.Richard Dorsey, Hacienda Heights, CA. AKA, diogenes of california

Sadly I found this book rather flat. It just never go to exciting. The writer does have a way of drawing word pictures.

Daniel Silva is one of the best political/espionage thriller writers around and this is the 14th adventure featuring Gabriel Allon. By this time most writers are finding it difficult to find different plots but this action-packed story is as current as today's news headlines about the Middle East at the end of the Arab Spring.Gabriel Allon is one of the most fascinating characters in modern espionage fiction. He operates in two quite distinct worlds, that of a world renowned art restorer and that of a senior operative of Israel's Security Intelligence Service - "the Office". He is a skilled artist in both worlds, one very gentle and the other, while still very skilled, at times can be very violent.Gabriel is living in Venice and is having one of his rare times of contentment, restoring a notable artwork and his beautiful wife Chiara (also an operative) is expecting twins. During this peace he is also pondering his future when in a year he is committed to become head of the Office."Not peace, though; for this restorer, peace was only the period between the last war and the next....men such as the restorer never allowed themselves to be seduced by the notion that peace would ever be possible."His peace is disturbed by a visit from General Ferrari of the Italian Art Squad with a clever proposition with terms he couldn't refuse. Ferrari asks Gabriel to help him investigate the torture and murder of Jack Bradshaw, a former British diplomat, and art collector and help him track down stolen art, especially the holy grail, an altarpiece by Caravaggio that has been missing for decades. What Gabriel doesn't realise is that this will not only send him into the dark world of stolen art and forgery and but ultimately on the money trail of the finances of a Middle East dictator which will involve the Office in one of its most unusual cases.Returning readers may find the story starts slowly as as Gabriel collects together a fascinating team of specialists from both sides of the fence that he has worked with in the past to help him. Silva introduces each character quickly and effectively making it easy for the first reader to follow but also helping others to remember the characters from other adventures.This book shows once again the depth of Daniel Silva's research and understanding of the of the dangerous world of the Middle East. Fans of Gabriel Allon will not be disappointed but will probably be surprised to see a softening as he contemplates fatherhood and the responsibilities to come. While the characters and the modus operandi are a similar to previous adventures and could be considered a bit predictable by some, this contemporary tale is probably one of the most complex, puzzling, nail biting, and exciting with an ending that is hard to predict. 4.5 stars.With impending fatherhood and Gabriel due to take over the helm of the Office, I will certainly be looking forward to the the next book in the series.

Bom livro, como todos de Daniel Silva. Há outros melhores, mas este também vale a pena.

Como piblicitado

Silva’s technique of blending facts with a fictitious tale represents a very fertile imagination which when well written becomes an informative exciting read that is difficult to put down.

I've read the entire Gabriel Allon series and pretty much the same could be said for all of the books. This volume is no exemption. The literary equivalent of a chocolate bar or a bag of chips, it makes for a good beach read or helps pass time on a long-distance flight.The story and characters are compelling enough to provide good "junk-food" reading and are always close to current events. Mr. Silva does not bother the reader with moral dilemmas or complex characters. Throughout the series, the world stays neatly black and white, always cast along the lines of the same stereotypes, while the characters remain curiously two-dimensional, gaining little depth throughout.This title follows the same pattern as the rest. Gabriel stumbles onto a great mystery, solves it to discovery an even greater evil, hatches a crazy plan to fix it, and against all odds comes tantalizingly close to achieving his goal when something goes horribly wrong. Maddeningly, along with the pattern of the story, Silva also "recycles" large portions of his prose from the previous volumes, which sometimes leaves me wondering it I've accidentially purchased the same book twice. But no.This time, the story is set to the background of the civil war in Syria. As usual, Silva skillfully interweaves fact with fiction and creates quest for his hero that is very believable.We meet a few old aquaintances from previous novels and a new girl, who remains too bloodless to be called a leading lady. The hero Gabriel is slowly turning into a weeping willow, which didn't seem too plausible to me, but I suppose after what he has lived through, he is allowed to mellow with age. Frankly, I found him a lot less compelling than in Silva's previous efforts. Everyone else is (too) much the same.The Swiss finally get a shot at redeeming their national character; each nation gets to play its assigned role (except for the Americans, who are apparently taking a holiday).If you have read several of the previous books and liked them, this is one more just like. If you have read one previous book, be prepared to revisit quite a lot of it. For a first Gabriel Allon novel, I'd pick an earlier one.

I'm a apraciator of Gabriel Allon books, all histories are great. And the author Daniel Silva is a great writter.