The English Girl by Daniel Silva
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The English Girl is a spy thriller of geopolitical proportions and implications. There's Russia vying for energy hegemony in the Eurasian region through its oil and gas acquisitions both inside and outside its borders. There's Great Britain with its recently discovered huge oil field deposits in the North Sea. And then again, there's Russia with its eyes set on those oil fields. These two are brought together and broken apart by the English girl.

Daniel Silva weaves a complex web of events in which the players, most notably the protagonist, art restorer and legendary Israeli spy Gabriel Allon, set themselves against a backdrop kidnappings, murder, political extortion, blackmail and manipulation.

As the plot thickens throughout the book, the reader is ushered upclose into the world of espionage. Of course, this is espionage of some pretty sophisticated caliber.

I had been acquainted with Daniel Silva's work for a number of years, but had never picked up one of his books. Master spy and art restorer Gabriel Allon seemed to me quite an intriguing character. Yet, I had not enough curiousity in me to actually read one Silva's novels. It was until I heard the author himself on a radio show interview that my interest increased. The English Girl had just come hot off the press so I picked it up from a display at B&N and read a few chapters, but didn't buy it then.

I said to myself I'd read this some day. That day came when I was at the library and the book happened to be on a cart ready to be put back on the new arrivals shelves. I have to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book. The actual reading was effortless which for a slow reader like me is a surprise. Silva is a gifted writer and takes great care in creating an impressively believable underworld for the reader to lose himself into.

If The English Girl happens to be your first Daniel Silva book, you won't be disappointed.


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