The Confessor (Gabriel Allon Book 3)

"The Confessor" is the 3rd in the Gabriel Allon series by Daniel Silva. This one may be the best, although I would hardly call it a "thriller." No, it is a savvy mixture of an international detective story with the added glamor of highly paid assassins doing their thing and the secret Nazi-loving branch of the Curia in Rome.The pace is relaxed. This is not a criticism. Just know as you begin the book, that you will not stay up all night reading it. It will be easy to pick up on future days. I liked the pace actually. Yes, there are a couple of high-speed "chases" sprinkled here and there, some gory assassinations and murders, and a plot that builds tension nicely, but all-in-all it's a leisurely stroll through the sordid 1940's past history of the Church's ultimate collaboration during and protection of Nazis after World War II.In a sense, this book represents an attempt at reconciliation between Jews and Catholics. I felt that theme was sensitively written and ultimately achieved. Were it so easy in the real world of hard core politics and long memories !! I thought it touching near the end that the "confessor" turned out to be the modern day fictional Pope confessing his "sins" to a Jew, the assassin, Gabriel.Gabriel is no super-hero, but with Chiara, a rather well-drawn sexy accomplice, they make a deadly and intelligent sleuthing- and paid-assassin couple, seeking the truth about the Church's complicity with the Nazis and its modern day cover-up. Shamron, the Israeli brains behind the intelligence and decisions to kill adversaries, plays a nice role in this book, better than in the other two, I believe. He actually seems to have a real personality in this one and emerges as a real person. The fictional Pope is also clear-headed, likable and convincing, as is his chief side-kick Father Donati.The bad guy, otherwise known as the Leopard or Eric Lange, is sufficiently evil and awful, but not without his human side either. His downfall seems to be an inflated self-concept and an eerie lack of self-protection.The absolute best part of this book, as in so many similarly-themed others written in the last 10 years, is its unflinching criticism and condemnation of the Catholic Church -- not only for its obvious and well-known complicity with the Nazis in WWII, but for its other current inhumane policies and conduct. I know that "The Confessor" is fiction, but ............................. but, this fictional version of these specific events not only confirms long-known (or suspected) facts, but also reveals facts and truths without blinking an eyelash. Kudos to Silva.I give Silva a 4 for this one. It kept my interest -- though it took me a couple weeks to finish it. It definitely is not a page-turner and nowhere near the classic terrorist thriller we've come to know and love over these recent years. But Silva is a good writer and his research seems excellent.Well, so much for Silva. Now, on to a much better writer, Arturo Perez-Reverte, and his newest book which just arrived on my doorstep yesterday, "The Cavalier in the Yellow Doublet" (the latest in the Adventures of Captain Alatriste). While I like Silva, but I am an admirer of Perez-Reverte.

This is a very convoluted tale that finds truth tha must be told. It tells the story of man’s sin against man. Evil does not prevail.

I quite enjoyed this third installment of the Gabriel Allon series and look forward to diving into the next one on my list ( A Death in Vienna (Gabriel Allon, Bk 4) ). In fact, my enjoyment of the series is growing with each installment I read. The locations, characters and complexity of the plot are very satisfying and I find these to be first rate espionage thrillers.Although I have frequently used resources like Google Maps to occasionally look up locations mentioned in novels, this was the first novel I read almost entirely on the new iPad and what a treat this was! Although I don't know if this was the case in the first couple of Silva's Allon novels, I found that all of the intriguing european locations mentioned in The Confessor" were quite legitimate--or at least the street was legitimate and usually specific enough that I could pick out what building must have inspired the author. In some cases, as with the apartment building mentioned in the first line of the novel, the actual building is there and, based on Silva's end notes, he gathered anecdotes about life in that very building from relatives who lived there.This all makes reading on the iPad especially fun because you can click the Home button twice, switch to Google Maps, search the address or street from the novel and zoom right down to the street or park in question and "walk around" with Gabriel. It's an utterly immersive experience. And given Silva's obviously well researched and carefully chosen Swiss, French and Italian locations, this is a real treat. Silva tends to continuously provide very specific location information such that you can literally trace a car chase down a winding road and get a truly cinematic feel for the real-life location or directly observe the flavor of a shopping district in Cannes where the characters might stop.It's almost like a whole new way of reading and I found Silva's book remarkably well suited to it. If you're really into the whole iPad-novel immersion thing, you can even stream the real Monaco radio station Silva mentions (using any radio streaming app) and hear the station Gabriel is hearing as you look at the scenery he would be seeing. It's a total blast and the seamlessness of the retina iPad experience elevates this kind of reading technique to the sublime.

This novel is a riveting historical adventure providing many facts and details regarding the complexities of the Roman Catholic Church, the impact of WWII on the Jewish community as well as on those who helped and might have helped to change the course of history. A deeply touching novel.

I’m really enjoying this book and it rounds out my Silva collection! Bring on the next one in July 2023 …

これは Gabriel Allon シリーズの第３作目です。世界でも数本の指に入るという類まれな才能を活かした絵画修復業を営むかたわらとんでもなく優秀な暗殺者でもある Gabriel は現在51歳です。子供と妻は第１作目で Tariq のリベンジにより車ごと吹き飛ばされていた事が分かっています。妻は生き残っていますが、生ける屍状態で、外界の刺激に何の反応も示さず、記憶も失われています。仕事の合間にそんな妻を時々見舞い続けている Gabriel の心中を推し量る事はできません。今回は大学で教鞭を取っていた Benjamin Stern という人が何らかの理由でテロリストに殺害されるのですが、誰がなぜ殺したのかを探るために Gabriel が動きます。何と Benjamin の弟に偽装して警察から事情を聞き、あくまで弟として振る舞っています。なぜ、Benjamin が殺されたのか、単に本を執筆していただけの彼がなぜ殺されなければならなかったのか？北イタリアのひっそりとした修道院で行われた会談と Benjamin の死との間の関係を Gabriel は探っていきます。この話では Gabriel はあまりプロの暗殺者らしくないですね。ある男を追ってローマに来て、ホテルの自室で逆にその男に襲われなぐられ、縛り上げられ、あげくのはてにイタリア中の警察に指名手配され、顔写真までテレビに流れる始末。う～ん、これがあの伝説の Gabriel Allon なんだろうか・・・。

この作品は、スパイ小説としては一級品で、そのスピード感、展開の早さはなかなかのものだ。物語は、ミュンヘンの安アパートでユダヤ人学者が暗殺されたところから始まる。そして暗殺の裏に隠された謎を解くべく、モサドエージエントのガブリエルが動き出す。ガブリエルはイタリアからドイツ、そしてイギリスと目まぐるしく動く。そこで又も死が。　とにかく舞台が目まぐるしく変化し、次々と新たな人物が登場する。この小説をこれから読む人は、新たな人物が登場する度にメモを取っておいたほうが良いかもしれない。舞台が頻繁に替わり、その都度登場人物が入れ替わるので、メモを取らないと最初戸惑ってしまうかもしれない。それと、イタリア語、フランス語が時折文中に顔を出す。私は何だか、美味しい焼き魚を食べていて小骨が歯の隙間に挟まったような感じを受けたが、無視して読んでも全体の流れが途切れることはないと思う。又作者は銃器に造詣が深いようで、gunが単なるfirearamとしてではなく、ベレッタとか何だか妙なメーカー名を付されて登場する。そういった物が好きな方やスパイ映画の好きな方にとっては、たまらない一品だとは思う。但し、謎解きミステリーを期待して読むと、少々がっかりするかもしれない。　謎解きゲームは、小説の三分の二を読み進めたところでほぼ明らかになり、残りはモサドエージエントとプロの殺し屋との駆け引き、対決と発展する。勿論謎解きの核心部分は最後にとってあるが、それでも読んでいて、残り五十ページほどは力が抜けてしまった。出来ればもう少し構成に工夫があれば良いのにというのが、私の率直な意見です。

In `The Confessor', the third of the Gabriel Allon thrillers, the election of a new Pontiff coincides with the appearance of various papers minuting meetings, during World War II, between officials of the Vatican and the Nazi Party. They clearly show the Vatican's silent complicity with the Nazi policy of Jewish extermination.As the new Pontiff attempts a final reconciliation between the Catholic Church and Judaism the resistance to his policy within the Curia grows; a number of murders inevitably follow and, since one of them involves a close friend of Gabriel Allon, both Gabriel and Israeli intelligence find themselves drawn into the unfold maelstrom.I have just one relatively minor criticism: the way Gabriel deals with an attempt on his life - his rather indiscriminate use of both a Beretta and sub-machine gun leaves four members of the Italian police dead and six wounded - reduced a five star rating to four.In the earlier books I felt both Gabriel Allon and Ari Shamron were slightly unbelievable characters and in need of further development. In `The Confessor', perhaps helped by the final appearance of the beautiful Chiara Zolli, Daniel Silva has deftly resolved that particular issue and given us a genuinely gripping thriller.Read and enjoy.

"The Confessor" is the third book of the Gabriel Allon series and in my opinion it's the best so far. However, I believe I would've enjoyed it more if I hadn't read "The English Assassin" before.Someone is assassinated --> Shamron involves Gabriel in the murder case --> it becomes clear that the victim was killed to prevent him from revealing an organization's involvement in the Jewish holocaust during WW2 --> someone central in the plot is targeted by a notorious assassin --> the threat is solved, but not by Allon -- it fits like a glove for both "The English Assassin" and "The Confessor". Most of the characters may be different and they may be travelling to different cities, but I had a constant feeling that I'd read it before.Also, once again Allon is irrelevant to the story climax, which is a bit irritating. Had he not been there and the outcome would be the same, which is something that also happened in the first two books.However, it's a fun book to read because it keeps a very high pace, the Catholic Church behavior during WW2 is a captivating theme, and there are also some very tense moments, such as the Rome shootout and the synagogue speech.+: pace, tension and subject; believable plot from start to finish-: unoriginal storyline; once again Allon is a non-factor in the book climax=: If I hadn't read "The English Assassin" before, I would rate it 4 out of 5; even so, "The Confessor" is a book that thriller fans will certainly enjoy