The English Assassin

By: Daniel Silva

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

Israeli art restorer and occasional secret agent Gabriel Allon has a problem. A prominent Swiss banker has called him to Switzerland to restore his Raphael. The problem is that Allon finds the banker dead in front of his Raphael, and he's the prime suspect. After some diplomatic intervention, Allon is freed. However, the banker's daughter, wracked by guilt, tells him that her father's cache of French Impressionist paintings, acquired under dubious circumstances during the Second World War, has been stolen by the murderers. Once Allon knows about the banker's wartime misdeeds, he attracts the attention of a secret Swiss organization dedicated to suppressing knowledge of all such crimes, and he is pursued by a shadowy killer known only as "the Englishman."

©2002 Daniel Silva (P)2002 Books on Tape, Inc.

Did not finish

Read this book years ago and love all Daniel Silvia’s books. The narrator could not hold my attention and I stopped after 2 hours.

This one has it all

Spies. Assassins. World War II History. Art. Music. This one has all that, plenty of action, and a story that will draw the reader in.

Creative as always

I’m always amazed when reading Silva’s books at how much knowledge he has or has done research on relating to the various components of the book for instance, the CIA, MI6, painting, and other diverse subjects. Makes for a great read.

The reader was great also.

Pretty Good

A bit more violent than what I like but I couldn't stop listening--I just had to know what whas going to happen next.

Awful narration

This narrator is only capable of two accents-- well, maybe three. But to saddle Israeli characters with a terrible German accent seems so dreadful that I will not listen to more Silva books with this narrator, and I recommend that you don't either. At one point I was having such difficulty keeping track of who was supposed to be talking that I almost stopped listening. They all had terrible German accents. Too bad-silver is an interesting author

Not so much...

I loved this book.

HOWEVER ... John Lee's reading is overdone with accents. It detracts from the story.

Daniel Silva never disappoints!

Wish I had a piece of fine art, so I could hire Gabriel to come restore it! Constructive criticism him would be that the story was a bit hard to follow. Sometimes I felt I needed a scorecard to keep up with the characters but as I said in my title Daniel Silva never disappoints!

Intrigue at its best!

Another fascinating journey with Gabriel Allon. Daniel Silva keeps you connected and unable to stop until the end.

Too much expository repetition

The author retells the backstory too often. Especially to a reader for whom this is not a first Gabriel Allon rodeo. There are also plot threads that don’t quite make sense in the larger picture. Also the title doesn’t make sense. Last, the narrator, John Lee, needs to broaden his repertoire of accents. Too many characters sound the same. All not fatal, and I’ll continue the series.

What was it all about?

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The title would suggest that the main plot revolved around a British killer. That character seemed to play such a small part in the story as to be nearly irrelevant. Not only did we not learn much about the Keller character, but also, it never seemed that there would be any substantive interaction between him and Allon.

Certainly, the thought that billions in stolen art and other cultural items may be secreted away in Swiss bank vaults is intriguing. I'm not sure that this book really brought that to the forefront, but almost gave this an "oh, by the way" kind of treatment.

Would you be willing to try another book from Daniel Silva? Why or why not?

The character of Gabriel Allon seems deep and interesting enough as to warrant another try at this series. I have a few in my queue that I will listen to first, but I may come back and give it a whirl. So far, I prefer the thrillers from David Baldacci, Barry Eisler, and Brad Thor, so it may be a while before I get back to Silva's works.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Possibly. I think the characters are interesting, though the jumping between European cities is dizzying enough in a book that it might be confusing in a movie setting.