159. Title & Author: The Confessor by Daniel Silva (401 pages)Genre: Fiction--Action & Thriller
Completed: 26 September 2010
Summary & Review:
Israeli spy/art restorer Gabriel Allon is torn away from his work in Venice to help track down the murderer of his friend Benjamin, a fellow Mossad agent. Soon, Allon discovers the reason why Benjamin was killed: he was writing a book exposing that the Catholic Church was complicit in the deportation of Jews during the Holocaust and met secretly with the Nazis to ensure that the Pope would not speak out against the atrocities occurring under the Third Reich. As Gabriel pursues the killers, they make a desperate attempt to keep the truth a secret, even planning to assassinate the newly elected Pope.
Daniel Silva is what Dan Brown wishes he could be: a talented writer. This plot was very much something Dan Brown could have written using his wet-blanket protagonist Robert Langdon, but in Silva's hands it was thrilling and intelligent. As always, Gabriel Allon proved to be an excellent lead. He is consistently more than just the tough, alpha-male spy that is found in so many contemporary thrillers, and that makes this series stand out even more than it already does with Silva's above-par writing.
Rating: 9.0
4 comments:
Why you gotta be a Dan Brown hater? I'm sure it's because he's financially successful and you're bitter and jealous. (typed with an inordinate amount of sarcasm.)
Now, I won't lie. Would I love to be as ridiculously successful as Dan Brown? Absolutely. But, if you asked me what kind of writer I would rather be, i.e. whose skill set I would rather have, it would be Daniel Silva over Dan Brown just like Pacquiao over Margarito.
P.S. Have you read Dan Brown's latest, "The Lost Symbol?" Check out my review of it, #129 from February of this year.
I did read "The Lost Symbol". I think you were generous in giving it a 7.0. I would have given about the same review, but what frustrated me was that it was like Brown was talking down to the reader, and Robert was a very slow genius. Brown would just bring things to light so slowly. Like he would write about some past event, then a hundred pages later he would allude to it and it would take Robert forever to remember it. And it was suppose to be a huge discovery. Maybe I'm just too cynical.
P.S. I had to google Pacquiao and Margarito.
First of all, I am glad that I have now enlightened you to the awesomeness that is Manny Pacquiao. He is hands down the best boxer ever to have put on gloves. Bar none.
Second, did I really give "The Lost Symbol" a 7? That is generous! Looking back on that book I really don't have anything good to say about it.
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