Gabriel Allon and team used to plan operations out of a basement level room at "The Office" (for those new to Silva's books, The Office refers to the location of Israeli Secret Intelligence). Not only Gabriel has risen to the top floor, as the reluctant new Chief, but he's done the unprecedented -- typical Gabriel -- by keeping on his predecessor (who will be recognized by readers of the Allon series), and his entire "team" to the top floor with him.Frankly, I was delighted to find Gabriel and his team, plus the somewhat enigmatic Christopher Keller, who works for MI6 but cannot cut ties to his old Corsican boss, and visits him for to obtain vital information for the operation. And Keller has grown as a character -- this time he handled with compassion the old goat, who despite old age and intestinal cancer was still butting cars and heads with anyone who dared to try to pass by onto a certain Corsican road!
I LOVED this book for these reasons: first, although now Chief of Israeli Intelligence, Gabriel relies on his predecessor, who was never quite as good in the field as Gabriel (who is?!), to carry on other ops while Gabriel sets up an elaborate plan to destroy Saladin, the ISIS zealot with whom those who read Black Widow became intimately acquainted with through the eyes of an Israeli doctor Gabriel recruited to become an ISIS "Black Widow." She ended up as Saladin's personal physician, nursing him back to health even while in her heart she wished to kill him. She ended up in a very bad way, and only luck and Gabriel's good timing prevented Saladin from killing her. She is still suffering from PTSD when we meet her in House of Spies, yet she agrees to be part of the operation to destroy him, his financial backing (long story), and his cyber-network of jihadists. We also meet again Chris Carter, , whose position at the CIA is uncertain, as he is considered too "old guard," wanting good intelligence from the ground, not just relying on drones. And Gregory Seymour, head of MI6 but uncertain what the future holds for him, as well -- and his French counterpart, the "non-existent" head of the "non-existent" elite French squad known as "Alpha Team."
Gabriel is the only one who ties them all together, who they "trust" which means they respect his judgement and his operational successes in the past. After a series of strikes by Saladin's cyber-recruits in London, Gabriel devises an elaborate step-by-step operation to bring down the business and social elite crowd, especially in France and Morocco, who, some unknowingly, provide financial support to Saladin and his activities. Through this elaborate plan, where any little thing could go wrong, Gabriel hopes to finally get close enough to Saladin, the current Prince of Evil, to gain access to him and his network and destroy them. Unfortunately, seizing the huge quantities of drugs coming by the flotilla-full to Europe which very indirectly (but Gabriel has a plan!) but a container of nuclear material for a dirty bomb that is also found that throws all the government agencies into a panic. So what to do?
I love the scene where Gabriel Allon, world renowned art restorer, gazes at blank canvases in his mind and tosses images onto them as to how this delicate operation is going to play out, involving, as it does, the highest echelons of many governments, as well as social and business elites. I know there are folks who are tired of Gabriel, but I NEVER WILL BE. Why? Because (like all the characters), he is complex, a real human being. He is a bundle of contradictions: an assassin who loves opera and art, is/was and artist and is a world renowned (under an alias, of course) Old Masters art restorer. Yet his is the brilliant mind behind some of the most elaborate , daring operations in this history of (fictional) espionage. He always operates behind the scenes trying to make the world, not just Israel, a safer place to live. He is a brilliant character, with human flaws, surrounded by a committed team of Israeli agents.
So I would say: PLEASE MR. SILVA, somehow keep Gabriel in the field! It was at high government levels this time, and then -- well, no spoilers, but you MUST read the book. It will stand alone, but I highly recommend beginning at the beginning of the Allon series, because each brings ever character you meet in this book into Allon's life. I felt this was the needed "sequel" to Black Widow, which I had a difficult time reading, it was so dark. Plus, it was mostly about the doctor recruit. House of Spies, also deals with some of the darkest threats to humanity in terms of people whose minds are so filled with hate they will do anything to create destruction and devastation wherever they think there are "infidels." But I was heartened that "the Aranovs" donated so much of "their" newly and mysteriously begotten billions to helping set up schools in Palestine and in refugee camps, and helping Arab refugees from Syra and elsewhere. Their philanthropy seemed to know no bounds OR boundaries, setting up medical care and basic survival needs for Arab refugees, while Israeli attained new underground operating rooms at a certain hospital where a certain doctor once worked, and even "The Office" received enough funds to keep them in operations for years. And then, rather mysteriously, the fabulously wealthy Aranovs disappeared.
Mr. Silva writes with such concise, compelling, descriptive and FRESH authority, that whether we are in a run-down ut coy safe house in London, out in the desert in tents in Morocco, living the high life in San Moritz, on the streets of Paris, London, New York, Washington, D.C. -- whether we are on trains, private jets, or piled into jeeps racing in the desert against a clock, or standing in a most classified "ops" room where a smallish-sized man with emerald green eyes tips his head, resting his chin in his hand, watches the huge electronic canvases where a drone strike is about to take place by his order -- WE ARE THERE! And we are there when the new Chief doesn't just sit on his butt!
My wishes, Mr. Silva, if you read these reviews, are these: 1) rather than giving us cameo appearances by Chiara, a once very active Israeli agent, SOMETHING forces her back into action -- in the last two books she is raising the twins, and you've kept her IN the books for a reason, I hope not just as someone who once in a while shows up and cooks for Gabriel!; 2) that the action in the next book sees Gabriel returning to art restoring -- for whatever reason! That alias is wonderful, and shows a side to him that we who have read all your books know is there, but as a character with flaws, he NEEDS to work on restoring, and not just trying to restore the balance of Good and Evil in the world; and finally 3) that you bring back Gabriel's relationship with the Pope and intrigue that is always occurring at the Vatican.
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Kirkus Book of the Year
5 StarsI bought House of Spies because it won Kirkus Best Book of the Year—and I am thrilled that I did. The book deserves the award and the bestselling status it has enjoyedHouse of Spies is the only book I have read (so far!) in Daniel Silva’s Gabriel Allon series, and I am hooked by the strong characterization, the sense of danger, and the tenuousness of the lives that Israeli spy chief—and ostensible art restorer—Gabriel Allon seeks to protect. The plot centers on capturing the Iraqi terrorist Saladin, who has perpetrated a series of deadly attacks on western cities that have scarred national treasures like The Lincoln Monument. A committed jihadist, Saladin seeks to install a caliphate that will destroy the very freedoms those monuments celebrate.I especially loved the various settings of the novel, which take the reader from London to Provence and Marseilles and, in the climactic scenes, to the Berber lands of Morocco. Any book that has me drinking tea at sunset in a Bedouin tent in the Middle Atlas Mountains is going to enthrall me.One caveat: other reviewers have criticized the repeated sentences, which should have been edited out. I agree, but these were minor foibles in an otherwise strong narrative.When I finished House of Spies, I downloaded The Kill Artist, Book #1 in the Gabriel Allon series. If the other 19 books live up to House of Spies, I will read the entire series.Fans of spy novels will love this book.
Top reviews from other countries
Ron Robson
What an excellent well put together story
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 21, 2024
Adarsha Dutta
Buy, if can be bought along with THE BLACK WIDOW.
Reviewed in India on July 1, 2021