The Defector is the ninth in Daniel Silva’s exciting Gabriel Allon espionage series, which continues to top the bestseller lists. This is the sequel to Silvas previous book, Moscow Rules, in which Allon, an Israeli Mossad spy, perseveres in battling his enemy, Ivan Kharkov, Russian oligarch and illegal arms dealer, who is out for revenge. The KGB colonel continues to endanger the Western world because Allon mistakenly let him live. This is also a love story in which Allon, the charismatic art restorer, is called away from his honeymoon in Italy with his beautiful fellow agent Chiara. Allon can opt to go into hiding in Israel, but his conscience won’t allow him to break a promise to a Russian defector who saved his life. Allon and his loyal team of Israeli operatives, including his wife, get busy with the chase, which takes many unexpected twists.
The chapters move us quickly to Moscow and the Russian forest, Geneva and Zurich, Paris, Lake Como and Umbria, Washington, D.C., the Adirondacks, Jerusalem and Tiberias, Oxford and “the Russian city sometimes referred to as London,” where 200,000 Russians live today.
Silva continues to do serious research to write about important, timely events and to educate his readers about Jewish history. This story, like his others, includes many strong female characters and is intelligent and well-written.
Miriam Bradman Abrahams, mom, grandmom, avid reader, sometime writer, born in Havana, raised in Brooklyn, residing in Long Beach on Long Island. Longtime former One Region One Book chair and JBC liaison for Nassau Hadassah, currently presenting Incident at San Miguel with author AJ Sidransky who wrote the historical fiction based on her Cuban Jewish refugee family’s experiences during the revolution. Fluent in Spanish and Hebrew, certified hatha yoga instructor.
