The Black Widow: The true crime book of the year

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Saladin, for all his ambition and ruthlessness, has managed to keep his true identity a secret. Everyone from Jordan’s GID to America’s CIA, and, of course, the Office, know him by reputation and name only. Smoking him out will not be easy, especially for a young doctor working as a newly trained, and first-time spy. I enjoyed the book but - to be honest - I prefer the earlier Gabriel Allon tales where he's more involved in the action. Still, this is a good thriller with a minor cliffhanger ending. I look forward to the next book. After 18 years behind bars alongside notorious names including Rose West and Myra Hindley, she is released.

But at the heart of these stories is Gabriel Allon, a man who has such a colorful history with the legendary Office but has sacrificed much in his personal life as a result. It is a compelling story, not only of the Jewish people as they strive to find a homeland, but of the struggle of Gabriel Allon to heal and pursue the values he holds important. All of this was brought out in a very sensitive way as he looked down at his two beautiful babies and knows that one day, they will ask him why. And his answer will be, "You exist in this place, you sleep peacefully in this land tonight, because of people like me."

La viuda negra” es el Libro #16 de la Serie Gabriel Allon, y pufffff como me ha gustado! Éste ha sido un thriller más que apegado a la realidad actual, y nos muestra el mundo convulso en el que vivimos a raíz del fanatismo religioso. Despite the fact that the novel is a bit of a dark read, it does end with a sense of hope. The good guys will fight on. That is the stuff of movies, and hopefully of reality. Its ending however leads me to believe that Mr. Silva intends to continue another frame of the story in the next novel of the series. The story does not quite feel complete. That doesn't mean, however, that a few things weren't a bit bothersome - the first of which is that the emphasis is far more on politics and history than on the characters. Chiara barely plays a role, and even Gabriel doesn't seem to be at the forefront as much as in previous books. There is almost tedious detail about the relationships (pro and con) among various countries like Israel, France and Syria, and the author makes it abundantly clear what side of the political fence he's on. That's not all bad, mind you; even though I've crabbed about other authors' crossing the line of putting their personal political agendas ahead of the story - and this one comes close to doing just that - Silva manages to write around it all in such an interesting, totally engaging way that in the end it didn't matter a whit to me (the historical parts, in fact, I thoroughly enjoyed). I love Gabriel Allon and have read all of the previous 15 books, but I found this book tiresome for a few reasons. First, Daniel Silva has apparently never met a non-beautiful woman worth writing about. As a female reader, this has gotten quite old by now. Isn't it enough to make the new woman featured in this book a multi-lingual, courageous doctor? Can't she just be normal looking and still be worth writing about? I've found Silva's insistence on creating a world populated almost exclusively by beautiful women to be a bit annoying throughout the series, but it was especially wearing in this novel, perhaps because Silva is once again relying on the trope of inserting a beautiful girl into a terrorist network. You'll notice that the female terrorists had to be beautiful, too. La narrativa se mantiene fiel al estilo del escritor que tanto le ha resultado, mantiene los saltos entre escenarios y personajes, siempre con buenas descripciones, ambientaciones y diálogos perfectamente balanceados dentro capítulos bastante cortos; haciendo que disfrutes de una lectura amena, ágil y súper adictiva.

It was interesting to read that the author had written this book before the bombings in France took place this year. I am so impressed by the research that is done with each book that he has written. The vivid imagery is truly astounding. Powerful. “ISIS doesn’t crucify only because it is cruel. It crucifies because, according to the Koran, crucifixion is one of the proscribed punishments for the enemies of Islam. It crucifies because it must. We civilized Westerners find this almost impossible to comprehend.” It seems that this may be the last book in the Allon Series, which makes me feel pretty sad. I have loved this series for years and Gabriel Allon has become one of my favorite fictional secret agents. Hopefully he will make a "guest" appearance in future books. I enjoyed the first quarter of the book; thoroughly adored the second two quarters of the book; then found the last quarter didn't live up to the intelligence of the middle of the book.Finalmente puedo concluir que podemos ver una muy buena crítica a la violencia manifestada por ISIS y a la ineficacia de los gobiernos y sus políticas de estados en función a intereses propios; en donde definitivamente el ciudadano común puede ser el más afectado.