The Kill Artist
written by Daniel Silva
This is the first official spy novel I've ever read, recommended by my really awesome Grandpa, and it was a great introduction to the genre and to this author. It took me a moment to get into the story because a few character perspective shifts left me confused about who was important, who was doing what, and quite simply, who was who, but all that changed when I realized I had fallen for one of the quintessential elements of a spy novel: aliases. After that realization and reconciliation, I sunk into a world of undercover agencies, emotional baggage, terrorism, and murder!
Gabriel Allon has been retired from his "less than legal" profession for a while, choosing instead to make his cover profession his only one, as a restoration artist. He's in the middle of restoring a masterpiece in a secluded town when his old boss Ari Shamron pays him a visit. Israel’s ambassador has been assassinated and it is believed to be by the infamous terrorist leader, Tariq al-Hourani. Gabriel and Tariq have a deep past from decades ago, and Gabriel hopes that by taking down Tariq he can begin to move on from his past mistakes and miseries. Ari Shamron is the retired boss come back to run one last mission for the Office, a group of highly trained surveillance and assassin professionals that work in conjunction with powerful governments (not the TV show). Pretty much every spy in this novel is a retiree brought back to action to settle old scores, and that includes Jacqueline Delacroix, a French model who used to work for the Office, and is brought back in to seduce a close contact of Tariq to uncover his whereabouts and strategies and perhaps to reconcile with Gabriel, a past flame dimmed, but not extinguished, by tragedy.
This book proved to be a complex and ensnaring read. Once the mission begun it was hard to pull away. In the beginning, Daniel Silva takes his time setting the stage and stakes for all characters involved, as well as secondary characters who have their own set of problems. And, even the most minor of characters (waitresses, people on the street, messengers) receive some description, but each time one came up I would giggle. They always carried a description of their appearance. It was never just a barista, it was an attractive barista, a blonde barista, a young and attractive barista as if it were imperative that we know about the physical attraction of every character, but Silva proves to be just as skilled at descriptors as he is at back stories. I was a little anxious that the female characters might simply be written as accessories to the males, but when Jacqueline entered the mission and owned it, I knew there was nothing to fear. It's certainly a "honeypot" maneuver, but she is independently minded, tough as nails, and just as storied as her male counterparts.
The Kill Artist kicks off a series of books centered around Gabriel Allon, the killer and artist (that's the title!), and I think I'll have to read more because that was one of the most exciting books I've read and there's no de-escalation in sight.