Stopping Russian nuclear strike during Ukraine crisis. Art theft also ( )

Daniel Silva has been writing books featuring his charismatic protagonist Gabriel Allon for over two decades. Somehow the quality rarely falters.

The latest is no exception. It begins with an art heist but soon mutates into so much more, incorporating murder, Russia, and the Ukrainian war.

Allon may be older and semi-retired, but he remains a deadly foe. This time out he recruits an intriguing beautiful thief, capable of matching wits with the spymaster, to infiltrate Russian oligarchs to avert a global catastrophe. The result is another nail-biter in a long line of thrill rides. ( )

Gabriel Allon has retired as chief of the Israeli intelligence agency and is now living in Venice with his wife and two children. He is again restoring paintings. The head of the Italian Art Squad, the art recovery section of the Italian police, General Cesare Ferrari, asks him for help identifying authentic paintings found in a murdered man's (Lukas Van Damm) mansion on the Almalfi coast and finding Johannes Vermeer's 1664 masterpiece "The Concert" that was stolen from the murdered man's illegal cache of paintings. That begins Gabriel's operation to get the painting back from the Collector, Magnus Larsen, an energy executive with close ties to those at the highest level Russian power. The people used this time are Magnus Larsen and Ingrid Johanson, the thief who originally stole the painting at the request a Danish rare book dealer who was also killed. The war between Ukraine and Russia continues in this novel. An effort by Russia to end it and take control of Ukraine is part of the plot. ( )

The books are fun but the storyline is a bit the same. A girl, Russians, using the Israelis etc. At least his family is safe. ( )

First 4 star rating of a Silva/Allon book. Agree with Violette62's reviewL a seeming mashup of two different plots. The art theft half was more interesting than the Russian second plot. ( )