Silva adds another adventure to the continuing saga of his protagonist: Israeli intelligence agent Gabriel Alon. The book is well written and is both gripping and informative.

I was slightly annoyed by Silva’s neglect of checking the correct spelling and pronunciation of Russian words and names. If you don’t know Russian it will not bother you.

Another small gripe: the protagonist seems to have a death wish, which is OK, but he also is somewhat sloppy in his operational planning which is strange as he is endangering others besides himself. These things do happen in real life but agents that don’t plan on contingencies usually don’t survive as long in this business as Alon has survived. This is minor gripe. I can see how Silva had to use the Deus Ex Machina solution to resolve the problem he had with the ending of the book. If Alon was a better planner this would not have been necessary but would also remove a lot of the suspense. I may be wrong and the unexpected intervention may be Silva’s way of keeping hope alive.

On another note: I completely agree with Alon’s (and by extension Silva’s) evaluation of Russia. It was confirmed after the book was published and will likely escalate. Read the book to see what I am talking about.

Highly recommended.