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(410 reviews)
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ISBN : B003X4P94W
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Determined to sever his ties with the Office, Gabriel Allon has retreated to the windswept cliffs of Cornwall with his beautiful Venetian-born wife, Chiara. But once again his seclusion is interrupted by a visitor from his tangled past: the endearingly eccentric London art dealer Julian Isherwood. As usual, Isherwood has a problem. And it is one only Gabriel can solve.
In the ancient English city of Glastonbury, an art restorer has been brutally murdered and a long-lost portrait by Rembrandt mysteriously stolen. Despite his reluctance, Gabriel is persuaded to use his unique skills to search for the painting and those responsible for the crime. But as he painstakingly follows a trail of clues leading from Amsterdam to Buenos Aires and, finally, to a villa on the graceful shores of Lake Geneva, Gabriel discovers there are deadly secrets connected to the painting. And evil men behind them.
Before he is done, Gabriel will once again be drawn into a world he thought he had left behind forever, and will come face-to-face with a remarkable cast of characters: a glamorous London journalist who is determined to undo the worst mistake of her career, an elusive master art thief who is burdened by a conscience, and a powerful Swiss billionaire who is known for his good deeds but may just be behind one of the greatest threats facing the world.
Filled with remarkable twists and turns of plot, and told with seductive prose, The Rembrandt Affair is more than just summer entertainment of the highest order. It is a timely reminder that there are men in the world who will do anything for money.
Books with free ebook downloads available Epub The Rembrandt Affair
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 11 hours and 27 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: Brilliance Audio
- Audible.com Release Date: July 20, 2010
- Whispersync for Voice: Ready
- Language: English
- ASIN: B003X4P94W
Epub The Rembrandt Affair
Whew. I remember this guy, Daniel Silva. He wrote the most marvelous thrillers -- action plus ideology, art, politics, a strong sense of place, memorable minor characters. Then he took a sabbatical that lasted 3 novels. Three novels in which the hero became a self-involved action figure.
But now he's back. And Gabriel Allon is back in Cornwall, although not yet out to sea or in the studio. He's tracking again, but tracking down a missing Rembrandt, a portrait of the artist's mistress, a never-displayed lost treasure. Julian Isherwood is much in evidence and the watching little boy of the early novels, Peel, is now a young man and back in the picture. The coast is described in general, if not in loving particular, and it looks like Gabriel is taking on an investigation that is personally significant, but not significantly personal.
While Silva -- a former reporter -- is always good at investing his plots with current issues, this meditation on the economics of art in a time of financial distress is particularly shrewd. The gap between rich and poor is exacerbated by those private collectors who buy paintings stolen from museums, only to hang them on the walls of their private galleries. So much more than monetary value is the world's loss to the Museum of the Missing.
Giving his reader non-stop-thrill-ride-nail-biting-OMG action has never been a problem for Silva. (The only problem has been giving so much of it that there's no room for anything else.) Here the background and subject matter of the painting itself are gracefully woven into the fabric of the story so that the reader learns and thinks while also being riveted.
The plot is more like the early books than the last 3: there's more thinking and less blood.
I'm a Daniel Silva fan - have read all his books, and love Israeli assassin/fine art restorer Gabriel Allon's stoic, focused, and brutal efficiency, as well as the authenticity and passion Silva brings to the genre. As LeCarre drifts further away from the spy craft that made him a near-household name, we are certainly fortunate to have Daniel Silva filling the void. But he does tend to be formulaic: a reluctant Allon is lured from retirement, and after assembling his crack team of brains and brutality, he dispatches the latest threat to Israel's existence with neat technology and clever plot twists worthy of the original "Mission Impossible" stunts. So "The Rembrandt Affair" followed that formula faithfully, but unlike previous installments - which blazed through the journey to a climax still stirring despite knowing the ultimate destination - "Rembrandt" fell flat for me. A more world-weary Allon and a relatively less despicable villain that combined with Silva plugging new names and places into his standard template resulted in a mostly uninspired tale.
This is not to say "The Rembrandt Affair" did not have its moments. This was one of his more poignant efforts - a well told yarn of the suffering of Dutch Jews under Nazi occupation rings as True as Anne Frank. In a recurring Silva theme, the role of the Vatican in the Holocaust is told with unvarnished and unapologetic distain. And Iran's nuclear threat is as current and topical as it is frightening, and as usual, Silva buries some well-researched fact and background into his fiction tightening the credibility while heightening the suspense.
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