Product Description

Art restorer and spy Gabriel Allon is sent to Vienna to discover the truth behind a bombing which killed an old friend - a Nazi hunter. While there he encounters something that turns his whole life upside down. Each fact he uncovers only leads to more questions until finally a picture emerges which is more terrible than he could have ever imagined - a portrait of evil stretching across 60 years and thousands of lives into his own personal nightmares.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18035 in Books
• Published on: 2005-08-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Gabriel Allon hasn't been back to Vienna since his wife and child died there in a terrorist bombing. But when his mentor in the Israeli intelligence agency dispatches him to the Austrian capital to investigate a murderous explosion at the Wartime Claims and Inquiry Office, his presence draws the attention of police officials who have reasons to stand in the way of his investigation. When a concentration camp survivor is killed who could link the father of Austria's next chancellor to Nazi atrocities and an ongoing coverup by the Catholic church, Allon discovers another connection to the conspiracy, this one closer to his own past than he could ever have imagined.

This is the third of Silva's thrillers featuring Allon, the art restorer who's also a spy. (The Confessor and The English Assassin are the first two.) In an endnote, the author calls them a "completed cycle dealing with the unfinished business of the Holocaust". Allon is such a compelling hero that one hopes Silva, a skilled craftsman and a terrific storyteller, will bring him back in another series. --Jane Adams, Amazon.com

About the Author
Daniel Silva is also the author of the bestselling novels The Unlikely Spy, The Mark of the Assassin, The Marching Season, The Kill Artist, The English Assassin and The Confessor.

Customer Reviews

A good read!
This is the seventh book from Daniel Silva, and his fourth dealing with the escapades of part-time art-restorer part-time Israeli spy/assassin Gabriel Allon. As always, Silva does not dissapoint. A colleague of Allon's is killed in his office in Vienna, an office that specialises in investigating aspects of the holocaust. Allon's handler, Ari Shamron, directs Allon to investigate, and so the story starts. A story that takes us to Austria, Italy, the Argentinian highlands, the United States, and of course to Israel. The story also touches on two themes that Allon has visitied before: the holocaust, and the relations between the Vatican and the Third Reich. The story is a thriller in every sense, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, as I have all of Silva's books. Silva usually takes his readers on an enchanting journey through many interesting countries and cities, and he is a master at accurate descriptions of these places. His descriptions in other novels of Rome, Venice and Jerusalem, amongst other places, were simply outsanding, and highly accurate. At least, in my experience of these places. But he and I clearly had very different experiences of Vienna. I was surprised by his "missing the mark" with Austria in general and Vienna in particular. It is a wonderful country and a wonderful city: gay, lively, tolerant. It is hardly this dark and foreboding hotbed of antisemitism and fascism like he has chosen to portray it. I suspect that Silva did spend some time Vienna, and it is not too accurately portrayed, when compared with my own experiences. And, while I do concede that Austrian coffee terminology can be a little tricky for a non-German speaker, I suspect that few Viennese order a cup of whipped cream in a cafe. However, that is not to say that this book is a most enjoyable read, and I have no hesitation in recommending it. If this is your first "Gabriel Allon" novel, I would recommend to read the previous three first, to put it in perspective. Vienna has a special place in Allon's history, and I think it is important to understand that when reading this book. From me: three and a half stars!

"Where wood is chopped, splinters must fall."
The death camps of the Reich provide the underpinnings of this intense and fast-paced novel in which the author draws new attention to the collusion of governments and institutions in protecting Nazi war criminals into the present day. Gabriel Allon, the main character, is working peacefully as a fine art restorer in Venice when he is suddenly summoned by his mentor in the Israeli secret service to investigate the bombing of the Vienna Office of Wartime Claims and Inquiries. Although the Austrian government has declared the bombing to be the work of an Islamic terrorist group, Allon believes it is more likely the result of current anti-Semitism within Austria. An extremely conservative candidate for Chancellor is given a high likelihood of winning the coming election and, the author points out, bringing the philosophy of the Reich into the twenty-first century.

As Allon searches for the perpetrators, the action careens from Vienna to Israel, Italy, Argentina, the US, and back to Vienna, and involves complex political, financial, and national security issues affecting a number of countries. Always, the present is tied to the history of the Reich. Erich Radek, a former Nazi, is still alive and active in Vienna, his war-time obliteration of the graves and bodies at Polish death camps so total that a new generation of Austrians is now asking, "Where is the evidence that the Holocaust ever happened?" Konrad Becker, a Zurich banker, has a mysterious client with over two billion dollars in assets; a Catholic bishop who helped war criminals escape is still connected to governments and police; successive governments in Argentina have provided aid to war criminals since the time of Peron; and American CIA agents have protected some war criminals during the Cold War. As Allon narrows the search to one well-protected man, the violence reaches a crescendo.

Silva's journalistic style is perfectly suited to his subject matter. He presents information efficiently and without preamble, in short sentences which move the action along quickly. Incorporating historical facts within his fictional framework, he provides testimonies from the Holocaust library at Yad Vashem, evidence from Auschwitz and Treblinka, and an account of Adolf Eichmann's capture to elevate the fiction, give it credence, and pack an emotional wallop. Within this exciting chase to apprehend the murderer, Silva develops his thematic goal of bringing continuing injustice to light, and few readers will fail to be moved by his zeal and the power of his historical details. This is a strong novel which transcends the usual "thriller" designation because of its reliance on verifiable evidence. Mary Whipple

A Death in Vienna
Fascinating book on Austria post Second World War. An insight into Austria's attitude to Jews, cover up of crimes committed during the war and afterwards. Daniel Silva has put this together in an exciting, informative and gripping story involving Israeli and American secret services. Difficult to put down once started.