The Cellist
A Novel
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3.6 • 682 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
From Daniel Silva, the internationally acclaimed #1 New York Times bestselling author, comes a timely and explosive new thriller featuring art restorer and legendary spy Gabriel Allon.
Viktor Orlov had a longstanding appointment with death. Once Russia’s richest man, he now resides in splendid exile in London, where he has waged a tireless crusade against the authoritarian kleptocrats who have seized control of the Kremlin. His mansion in Chelsea’s exclusive Cheyne Walk is one of the most heavily protected private dwellings in London. Yet somehow, on a rainy summer evening, in the midst of a global pandemic, Russia’s vengeful president finally manages to cross Orlov’s name off his kill list.
Before him was the receiver from his landline telephone, a half-drunk glass of red wine, and a stack of documents.…
The documents are contaminated with a deadly nerve agent. The Metropolitan Police determine that they were delivered to Orlov’s home by one of his employees, a prominent investigative reporter from the anti-Kremlin Moskovskaya Gazeta. And when the reporter slips from London hours after the killing, MI6 concludes she is a Moscow Center assassin who has cunningly penetrated Orlov’s formidable defenses.
But Gabriel Allon, who owes his very life to Viktor Orlov, believes his friends in British intelligence are dangerously mistaken. His desperate search for the truth will take him from London to Amsterdam and eventually to Geneva, where a private intelligence service controlled by a childhood friend of the Russian president is using KGB-style “active measures” to undermine the West from within. Known as the Haydn Group, the unit is plotting an unspeakable act of violence that will plunge an already divided America into chaos and leave Russia unchallenged. Only Gabriel Allon, with the help of a brilliant young woman employed by the world’s dirtiest bank, can stop it.
Elegant and sophisticated, provocative and daring, The Cellist explores one of the preeminent threats facing the West today—the corrupting influence of dirty money wielded by a revanchist and reckless Russia. It is at once a novel of hope and a stark warning about the fragile state of democracy. And it proves once again why Daniel Silva is regarded as his generation’s finest writer of suspense and international intrigue.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In this fast-paced installment of Daniel Silva’s long-running Gabriel Allon series, the death of a Russian oligarch sets off a global crisis. When Viktor Orlov is found dead in London, Israeli-spy-chief-turned-art-restorer Allon has no choice but to get involved. After all, Viktor once saved Gabriel’s life—and the local police seem all too willing to accept the obvious frame job which casts suspicion on an innocent journalist. Silva zips us from Israel to Amsterdam to Zurich as his hero races to uncover a money-laundering plot that could destabilize the world. He also weaves in a bunch of contemporary big issues, including the COVID-19 pandemic, making the story all the more gripping for being terrifyingly plausible. The Cellist dives beneath the headlines to deliver thrills, chills, and (just maybe) hope.
Customer Reviews
A Great Read!
Daniel Silva’s new book, The Cellist, is yet another fine work by one of the the masters of international spy novels. This book has all the well-researched world affairs background, intertwined with bad guys versus good guys heart pounding action that we’ve come to expect from Daniel Silva. This, and the previous Allon novel, The Order, also show us the heart and mind of the author - what most concerns him about what’s happening in the world. The Order was about the rise of anti-Semitism, and The Cellist about Russia’s campaign to undermine and defeat democracy in Western Europe and the United States from within by spreading misinformation, conspiracy theories, and encouraging extremists to take up arms.
First, I’d like to say that this is a great story. Like all the Gabriel Allon books, I had to keep reading and didn’t want to stop. A young German banker at a very dirty bank in Switzerland becomes aware of a major Russian money laundering operation at her bank. The beneficiaries of this operation are the Russian President and his inner circle. She decides that this must be stopped. Her actions to do so start a chain of events that leads to the end of the illegal operation, but with dire consequences for her, and for Gabriel Allon.
One thing I like about all Daniel Silva’s books is what I call the after-story. There’s a point where he could end the book, but he always gives us more. In this book, what happens to Gabriel in that “more” mirrors the peril facing democracy today. It is under attack and could be lost if we’re not willing to fight for it.
Needless to say, the book is impeccably researched, as all Mr. Silva’s books are. I like to read the Author’s note at the end of the book to view his various sources.
In summary, I would say this is a well-written and compelling story with a real world message of alarm that should make all of us think very hard about our way of life, who the real enemy is, and what we must do to defend what is ours.
I was given an advance copy of this book in the hope that I would provide an honest review, and so I did!
The Cellist
The Cellist was most certainly, for any U.S. American, an interesting spy novel.
Poignantly up to date in regards to the current political climate, the reminder that democracy is in fact the will of the majority of the U.S. voting population - be it liberal democracy or conservative democracy - is an important observation.
The Cellist
The Cellist would have been a far better BOOK had Silva not rewritten the ending into a gratuitous tirade against Donald Trump, no doubt at the urging of Silva’s wife who is employed by CNN.