Moscow Rules (Gabriel Allon) (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: Château de la Messardière, Ivan Kharkov, Elena Kharkov, Boris Ostrovsky (more...)

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Product Description

Daniel silva has hit the top with his new gabriel allon novel...

A #1 New York Times bestseller!

The death of a journalist leads Israeli spy Gabriel Allon to Russia, where he finds that, in terms of spycraft, even he has something to learn if he wants to prevent a former KGB colonel from delivering Russia’s most sophisticated weapons to al-Qaeda.

Amazon Exclusive Essay: Daniel Silva on Gabriel Allon and the "Accidental Series"

Writers tend to be solitary creatures. We toil alone for months on end, then, once a year, we emerge from our dens to publish a book. It can be a daunting experience, especially for someone like me, who is not gregarious and outgoing by nature. But there is one aspect of promotion I truly love: meeting my readers and answering their questions. During each stop on my book tour, I reserve the bulk of my time for a lively conversation with the audience. I learn much from these encounters-indeed, some of the comments are so insightful they take my breath away. There is one question I am asked each night without fail, and it remains my favorite: "How in the world did you ever think of Gabriel Allon?" The answer is complicated. In one sense, he was the result of a long, character-construction process. In another, he was a bolt from the blue. I'll try to explain.

In 1999, after publishing The Marching Season, the second book in the Michael Osbourne series, I decided it was time for a change. We were nearing the end of the Clinton administration, and the president was about to embark on a last-ditch effort to bring peace to the Middle East. I had the broad outlines of a story in mind: a retired Israeli assassin is summoned from retirement to track down a Palestinian terrorist bent on destroying the Oslo peace process. I thought long and hard before giving the Israeli a name. I wanted it to be biblical, like my own, and to be heavy with symbolism. I finally decided to name him after the archangel Gabriel. As for his family name, I chose something short and simple: Allon, which means "oak tree" in Hebrew. I liked the image it conveyed. Gabriel Allon: God's angel of vengeance, solid as an oak.

Gabriel's professional résumé-the operations he had carried out-came quickly. But what about his other side? What did he like to do in his spare time? What was his cover? I knew I wanted something distinct. Something memorable. Something that would, in many respects, be the dominant attribute of his character. I spent many frustrating days mulling over and rejecting possibilities. Then, while walking along one of Georgetown's famous redbrick sidewalks, my wife, Jamie, reminded me that we had a dinner date that evening at the home of David Bull, a man regarded as one of the finest art restorers in the world. I stopped dead in my tracks and raised my hands toward the heavens. Gabriel Allon was complete. He was going to be an art restorer, and a very good one at that.

Over my objections, the book was entitled The Kill Artist and it would go on to become a New York Times bestseller. It was not, however, supposed to be the first book in a long-running series. But once again, fate intervened. In 2000, after moving to G.P. Putnam & Sons, my new publishers asked me what I was working on. When I mumbled something about having whittled it down to two or three options, they offered their first piece of advice. They really didn't care what it was about, they just wanted one thing: Gabriel Allon.

I then spent the next several minutes listing all the reasons why Gabriel, now regarded as one of the most compelling and successful continuing characters in the mystery-thriller genre, should never appear in a second book. I had conceived him as a "one off" character, meaning he would be featured in one story and then ride into the sunset. I also thought he was too melancholy and withdrawn to build a series around, and, at nearly fifty years of age, perhaps a bit too old as well. My biggest concern, however, had to do with his nationality and religion. I thought there was far too much opposition to Israel in the world-and far too much raw anti-Semitism-for an Israeli continuing character ever to be successful in the long term.

My new publishers thought otherwise, and told me so. Because Gabriel lived in Europe and could pass as German or Italian, they believed he came across as more "international" than Israeli. But what they really liked was Gabriel's other job: art restoration. They found the two opposing sides of his character-destroyer and healer-fascinating. What's more, they believed he would stand alone on the literary landscape. There were lots of CIA officers running around saving the world, they argued, but no former Israeli assassins who spent their spare time restoring Bellini altarpieces.

The more they talked, the more I could see their point. I told them I had an idea for a story involving Nazi art looting during the Second World War and the scandalous activities of Swiss banks. "Write it with Gabriel Allon," they said, "and we promise it will be your biggest-selling book yet." Eventually, the book would be called The English Assassin, and, just as Putnam predicted, it sold twice as many copies as its predecessor. Oddly enough, when it came time to write the next book, I still wasn't convinced it should be another Gabriel novel. Though it seems difficult to imagine now, I actually conceived the plot of The Confessor without him in mind. Fortunately, my editor, Neil Nyren, saved me from myself. The book landed at #5 on the New York Times bestseller list and received some of the warmest reviews of my career. After that, a series was truly born.

I am often asked whether it is necessary to read the novels in sequence. The answer is no, but it probably doesn't hurt, either. For the record, the order of publication is The Kill Artist, The English Assassin, The Confessor, A Death in Vienna, Prince of Fire, The Messenger, The Secret Servant, and Moscow Rules, my first #1 New York Times bestseller. The Defector pits Gabriel in a final, dramatic confrontation with the Russian oligarch and arms dealer Ivan Kharkov, and I have been told it far surpasses anything that has come before it in the series. And to think that, if I'd had my way, only one Gabriel Allon book would have been written. I remain convinced, however, that had I set out in the beginning to create him as a continuing character, I would surely have failed. I have always believed in the power of serendipity. Art, like life, rarely goes according to plan. Gabriel Allon is proof of that.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Paul Gigante, who read Silva's Secret Servant, resumes his outstanding rendering of Gabriel Allon and his crew of Israeli counterterrorism experts. Once again, Gigante highlights Allon's strange blend of artist and assassin by giving him a quiet yet thoroughly persuasive voice. Gigante also deftly handles Silva's large, polyglot cast of arms dealers, terrorists, art dealers, wives, mistresses and even children. He does less well with the new Russian characters, Ivan and Elena, who speak with thick Russian accents, but use Anglicized pronunciations of their own names. Ivan sounds macho and threatening, but Elena is played with too much emotionalism, which detracts from the credibility of her decision to endanger her children and herself. Gigante's quick pace and narrative skill will keep listeners enthralled. A Putnam hardcover (Reviews, May 26 ). (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 433 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult; First Edition/First Printing edition (July 22, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399155015
• ISBN-13: 978-0399155017
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (133 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #30,787 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 8 in The Gabriel Allon Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Formulaic, tedious, and tied up quickly with a neat bow, August 28, 2008

By	gina "gina" (Oklahoma) - See all my reviews

I really thought Silva would develop his Allon character in this outing, but it was not to be. I had a feeling of deja vu throughout most of the book. "Been there, read that," the script was often repeated verbatim from previous novels. How many times must we read that Shamron "fingers his old Bic lighter?" This is a small thing, but it's repeated in a multitude of ways. I could have lived with these irritations (and skimmed) perhaps, but larger issues were present.

I thought perhaps my copy was missing a chapter at the end of the book. But no, the pages were intact. It seems that Silva met his quota of necessary pages and decided to tie the story up with a brief summation, much like a bad movie. He gave us the "what," and then cheated us out of the "how."

The other issue that I couldn't get past was that Allon was warned of multiple death threats at the beginning and again at the end of the book--all for naught. The only reason for these mentions are very obviously to set the stage for the next book. It wasn't necessary for the content of this story and it never evolved--what's the point???

I'll buy the next book, though, still hopeful that the character will evolve. He has to eventually, right???

74 of 100 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moscow Rule: "Death solves all problems. No man, no problem, July 22, 2008

By	Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

(4.5 stars) In his eighth Gabriel Allon espionage thriller, Daniel Silva moves from investigating the historical crimes of the past, often related to the Holocaust, and their effects on the present, to crimes of the present and their possibly catastrophic effects on the future. In this intense and absorbing novel about uncontrolled arms sales, the biggest threat to the future comes from Russian arms dealers, aided by Russia's president and former KGB operatives who are now unimaginably wealthy independent brokers and contractors. These arms merchants operate with impunity, selling all manner of weapons to terrorist organizations throughout the Middle East and Africa.

Gabriel Allon, formerly with the Israeli Mossad, is on his honeymoon in Italy when he is contacted by Ari Shamron, the grand old man of Israeli security. Allon, a trained art restorer, has been working for the Pope, but the recent assassination of a Russian journalist who may have had information he wanted to reveal to the West brings him out of retirement and back into action. When the murdered man's Russian editor-in-chief is also murdered, Allon travels to Russia, where he learns the name of a Russian arms dealer, Ivan Kharkov, who has been supplying Hezbollah, and who now appears close to selling sophisticated weapons to al-Quaeda.

Kharkov and his wife are collectors of Mary Cassatt paintings, and the fascinating art world which has added so much life to other Gabriel Allon thrillers in the past is also a major aspect of this novel. Art dealers, down-in-their-luck gentry who own prized artwork, and, in the case, of Allon, restorers, all play unexpectedly major roles in this effort to prevent Kharkov from selling advanced weapons to al-Quaeda. As the high-stakes plotting by the conjoined security services of England, the US, Italy, and France builds to a crescendo, Allon follows the action through various countries leaving multiple murders, beatings, car crashes, and betrayals in his wake. Always, the fine hand of the Russian mafia is pulling the strings, purportedly with the aid of the Russian president.

Silva keeps the action moving briskly, and his ability to convey the atmosphere of disparate locations adds depth and drama to the plot. The characters, even the minor ones, are paradigms of the countries they represent, imbued with the cultures of their homelands, rather than mere stereotypes. His major characters are complex and carefully drawn, and the action and underlying themes of the novel are intelligent and thought-provoking. As always, Silva creates a complex and exciting story, but this time the focus is on contemporary politics, rather than on the past. Providing evidence that future catastrophes are shockingly easy to inspire, given the venal nature of unscrupulous international arms dealers, Silva employs his formidable talents to create a terrifying picture of a cynical world--and a warning for the future. n Mary Whipple

The Marching Season: A Novel
The English Assassin
A Death in Vienna
Prince of Fire

74 of 102 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I hoped for something more, July 25, 2008

By	T. Kunikov (United States) - See all my reviews

Being a former Soviet I had high hopes for this book as I am used to the large amount of research Daniel Silva usually goes through for his novels. Having read most, if not all, of the Gabriel Allon series, and, at the same time, having read about some of the operations described in Silva's books (operation Wrath of God, etc) I was looking for an accurate assessment of today's Russia. Sadly, while the story was good enough and moved at the usual pace that Allon novels do, I was very much let down by the author/editors of this book in a variety of ways.

First, the Russian newspaper represented in the book is entitled "Moskovsky Gazeta", it should be "Moskovskaya Gazeta." The character Olga Sukhova has a grandfather with the same last name, Sukhova. Sukhova is the feminine form, if it is a man, it should have been Sukhov. I also noticed that the AK-47 is purported to have been one of the reasons the Soviets won against the Germans. I could only interpret this as a reference to WWII, yet, the AK-47 was not developed until after WWII. These are just a few of the errors I found, there weren't many more, but they did take away from the usual interest I have when delving into the world the author is trying to create.

The major "mistakes" that I noticed, and, to a degree, one might not be a mistake per se but rather something I do not agree with the author on. Russian journalists feature highly in this book and there have been a number of journalists killed, from a variety of causes. Yet I cannot agree that all the journalists killed, Silva claims 14 have died during Putin's time as President, died because of the work they have been doing (be it against the government or a government agency). In truth, few have been killed in such a way as to raise suspicion that they might have died under "professional" hands. Others have been made to seem that way for a variety of propaganda purposes. What I vehemently disagree with the author on is the idea that a character like Ivan Kharkov, a gun runner and former KGB operative, could be one and the same and an oligarch to boot. The oligarch's in today's Russia (and of the 90's) are not former KGB (Berezhovsky, Gusinsky, Abramovich, Khodorkovsky, Smolensky, Luzhkov, Chubais, etc) but they do have former KGB and spetsnaz forces as their security. These men made their money through banks, speculation, natural resources (gas, oil, etc), TV channels, real estate, etc. I'm more than sure that all of them took illegal steps in one way or another, but that is the natural order of things in capitalism.

Lastly, I resent the fact that just because Russia is using her resources as a bargaining chip means she wants to become a super power once more. Russia has a sphere of influence just like the US, their actions in foreign policy are dictated by self interest - just like every other country in this world. While it is true that they helped arm the Middle East during the cold war when the Soviet Union was in existence, it was the US that helped arm Islamic extremists the world over (especially those who flooded Afghanisan during the 80's to take up the war against the USSR, this of course doesn't take into account all the other covert operations undertaken by the US). I am not here to preach if what either country did/does is right or wrong, I just hate seeing a double standard at work.

My apologies if this review didn't cover the book as others have, I figure they did a good enough job and there was little I could add as to what the book was about/encompasses. But I do feel what I mentioned above will take away from the usual accuracy Silva tries to delivery in his books. Russians want and can live normal lives, otherwise how do you explain the millions living around the world? But it won't happen so soon, especially in a nation which has been around for less than two decades and has been living off of perverted capitalistic ideals that the west helped usher in.