The Sunday Mail
Not too long ago, Al-Qaeda was the most talked about terror group in the world. But since Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011, Al-Qaeda is no longer the poster boy of international terror.That dis-honour now belongs to Isis, and it is that terror group that is at the centre of Daniel Silver’s latest thriller, “House of Spies”.
A devastating attack in London sets Gabriel Allon on the hunt for the world’s most dangerous terrorist, an Isis mastermind known as Saladin.
Allon has a skillset that any spy would envy but his nemesis is something else as he takes the word ruthless to the next level with the way he operates.
“Saladin had struck Turkey virtually at will — weddings, buses, public squares, Istanbul’s busy airport, and his adherents in Western Europe, those who spoke his name with something like religious fervour, had carried out a series of lone-wolf attacks that had left a trail of death across France, Belgium, and Germany. But something big was coming, something coordinated, a terror spectacular to rival the calamity he had inflicted on Washington.”
This guy is bad news and while the world despises him for the atrocities he has committed, he is actually planning to do something more devastating and this is where Allon and his allies come in, to try and stop him.
A fast paced novel that is full of action and plotting, you cannot afford to put it down for a second as the story keeps on persuading you to read one more chapter every time you decide to take a break.
Silver does a great job in creating scenarios that are similar to what is actually happening in the present, something you would normally watch on the news.
The story is not set in one particular place, capturing events transpiring from across Europe down to the warmth of the African sun.
From international relations to the interaction and collaboration of intelligence organisations, the writer tries to simulate real world geo-politics.
If you are a fan of spy novels, this is one book that you want to have on your bookshelf.
