Product Description

Gabriel Allon, art restorer and spy, is about to face the greatest challenge of his life. An al-Qaeda suspect is killed in London, and photographs are found on his computer – photographs that lead Israeli intelligence to suspect that al-Qaeda is planning one of its most audacious attacks ever, straight at the heart of the Vatican. Allon warns the Pope’s private secretary, his old friend Monsignor Luigi Donati, and rushes to Rome to assist in the security. But what neither he nor Donati knows is that the Vatican has been thoroughly penetrated. An extraordinary enemy walks among them … and he’s just getting started. In the days and weeks to come, Allon and his colleagues will find themselves in a deadly duel of wits against one of the most dangerous men in the world – a hunt that will take them across Europe to the Caribbean and back again. But for them, there may simply not be enough of anything: enough time, enough facts, enough luck. All Allon can do is set his trap – and hope that he himself is not the one caught in it. Filled with remarkable characters and breathtaking double and triple turns of plot, The Messenger confirms Silva’s reputation as his generation’s finest writer of international thrillers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #74950 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

About the Author
Daniel Silva is a New York Times top-five bestseller and the author of eight bestselling novels, most recently The Confessor, A Death in Vienna, The English Assassin, Prince of Fire, and The Messenger. He lives in Washington DC, with his wife, NBC Today correspondent Jamie Gangel, and their two children, Lily and Nicholas. www.danielsilvabooks.com

Customer Reviews

Wonderful Escapism - Page turning stuff
Loved this book. I've not read anything anywhere near as good as this since I used to read "Ian Flemming". I actually lost quite a bit of sleep over several nights as I couldn't put the book down. Very low brow - hardly a taxing read, but with a gripping style that's perfect for a poolside read on holiday.

Best of all the characters are fairly three dimensional, and by the middle of the book you actually start to care about their survival, and that they will reach their aims.

Highly recommended escapism. Can't wait for the film franchise to pick it up.

"It all came down to a business transaction...Twenty million for a life."
With Saudi "businessmen" of almost unimaginable wealth supporting and financing Al Quaeda terrorists, anything can be bought, including lives. In what is arguably Silva's strongest novel, the Vatican is attacked, St. Peter's Basilica is bombed, the Pope and his aides are threatened and shot at, and dozens of people are killed. Gabriel Allon, an art restorer who has a secret life as an assassin and intelligence operative for the Israeli security services, has warned his long-time friend Msgr. Luigi Donati, private secretary to the Pope, of the attack, but he is not quite in time. Working with the Vatican, US intelligence agencies, and Israel in the aftermath of the carnage, Allon works to track down the leader of the cell and his money supply to prevent further massacres.

Saudis, including one of the princes, have masterminded and funded the attack, hiding behind a multi-national corporation with many different businesses which allow them move men and materiel across borders and into position as terrorists. Allon's tracking of the killers tells him it is only a matter of time before another similar attack is launched.

The moneyman behind the terrorism is also a collector of the rarest impressionist paintings, and Allon uses his connections in the art world to interest the Saudi in a never-before-exhibited Van Gogh painting. He also attempts to penetrate the man's inner circle--by employing a beautiful American art expert, Sarah Bancroft, to be curator of his art collection and provide them with information. As the moves and countermoves play out, Allon and his fellow agents travel throughout Europe and the Caribbean, following the terrorists and their money, while trying to protect their very vulnerable plant inside the Saudi operation.

Silva is a master at keeping suspense high. Allon, as a secret agent, is free to take whatever means are necessary, including multiple murders, to prevent the spilling of even more innocent blood. As Sarah Bancroft's position within the Saudi inner circle becomes increasingly tenuous and eventually leads to violence, the body count rises. Silva's depiction of torture and mayhem takes on an almost clinical detachment, creating even more horror in the mind of the reader, and his vision of sadistic killers who enjoy the game of death is terrifying. Carefully constructed to take into account the latest information about Al Quaeda and its tentacles in all aspects of western business and social life, this dramatic novel from 2006 shows with terrifying accuracy the lengths to which terrorists are willing to go in the name of jihad--and the lengths to which intelligence agencies may have to go in the name of self-defense. n Mary Whipple

Moscow Rules, 2008
The Secret Servant (Gabriel Allon), 2007
Prince of Fire, 2005
A Death in Vienna, 2004
The Confessor, 2003

Gabriel Allon now ready for retirement
I have read all Daniel Silva's books and enjoyed most of them until the Prince of Fire when it was apparent that Mr Silva was fast running out of ideas for his Gabriel Allon character.

Nowadays I am suspicious of authors who write book after book with the same character. The character tends to become too familiar and often predictable, for me every character has a sell by date. It's also too easy to write book after book with the same character and having written superb books like The Unlikely Spy and The Marching Season it's obvious how talented Daniel Silva is so why as they say in the movies become type cast.

Anyway back to the plot. The Messenger starts out well enough but soon becomes all too predictable and to be honest quite stupid. I cannot fathom the authors obsession of having the Vatican yet again as a significant part of the story

From being a mere mortal spy and assassin Gabriel Allon has been turned into a superhero who has dinner with the Pope and the United States President.

I'm sorry but this book is very dissappointing and will be the last Gabriel Allon book I read. Sadly I see Mr Silva is remaining on the quick and easy path as his latest hardback is again Gabriel Allon.

Let me give me you a big tip try "Spy Dance" by Allan Topol there is more intrigue, suspense and spy tradecraft in the first 4 chapters than the whole of The Messenger and The Prince of Fire.