The Confessor
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Published Reviews
Booklist Review
This is the third spy thriller featuring Gabriel Allon, art restorer and reluctant Israeli agent, following The Kill Artist (2000) and The English Assassin [BKL Ja1 & 15 02], and it is utterly compelling reading. Former journalist Silva is a sophisticated writer with a lean, economical style and a gift for shaping riveting action scenes. In addition, his lead character, Allon, is, at once, fiercely intelligent and infinitely weary, seemingly reluctant to deploy his expert and deadly skills. This time out, Gabriel is asked to investigate the vicious murder of his friend Benjamin Stern, a onetime agent who was researching the role of the Vatican in the Holocaust for a book. Gabriel begins to suspect it is the work of a calculating mercenary known as the Leopard--but who was he working for? All the evidence points to Crux Vera, a secretive, moneyed group of Roman Catholics with ties to the highest levels of power within the Vatican. What's more, Gabriel is certain the pope himself is next on the hit list because of his willingness to throw open the secret archives, which document the extent of the Vatican's complicity with the Nazis. Silva's searing portrait of a church under siege by its own corrupt bureaucracy and corporate publicity machine is particularly resonant. An uncommonly intelligent thriller told with elegant precision. --Joanne Wilkinson
Publisher's Weekly Review
"If you think Italians have a long memory, you should spend some time in the Middle East. We're the ones who invented the vendetta, not the Sicilians." So maintains Gabriel Allon, art restorer and Mossad hit man, star of Silva's second thriller series (The Mark of the Assassin, etc.). Gabriel is once again reluctantly dragged from his day job (he's working on a Bellini in Venice) by Israeli spymaster Ari Shamron, who heads a team of sleeper Mossad agents scattered all over the world. This time, it's a revenge mission: one of Shamron's agents (an academic working on an expos about the Vatican's collaboration with the Nazis) has been assassinated. The gunman was working for a secret Vatican society known as Crux Vera. Composed of Roman Curia members and shady rich thugs, this shadow group intends to kill the latest pope to keep him from exposing the Vatican's secret archives. In order to find the gunman (known as "the Leopard," a reclusive European of independent means who hires out his deadly skills to the highest bidder), Gabriel must take up his slain colleague's research, something the Italian and German governments assuredly do not want him to do. Gabriel is hounded all across Europe as he tries to find out the truth about the Nazi collaborators, save the pope and get the Leopard. Silva draws on bizarre WWII secrets uncovered by historians like Susan Zuccotti (whom Silva credits) for his premise. Though the plot sticks close to Silva's well-honed formula, the provocative historical revelations will keep readers enthralled. (Feb.) Forecast: National advertising and a radio satellite tour should insure Silva's usual robust sales. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Library Journal Review
The leaders of the Crux Vera, a church within the Catholic Church devoted to reversing the effects of the Reformation and the Enlightenment, are uneasy about Paul VII, the new pope. Hard on the heels of the conservative Pole, he causes tremendous consternation when he perseveres in a search for the facts about Pius XII's role in the Holocaust. Gabriel Allon, a master art restorer and part-time Israeli agent (seen in The English Assassin), has an old friend whose research is getting close to the truth. When he is murdered, Gabriel is reactivated and joins battle with an assassin nicknamed the Leopard. Silva, who here loads new excitement into the word thriller, will touch nerves with this hypothetical exploration of the Church's silence on these topics. The Vatican, Venice, and Munich are perfectly drawn as the settings for these dark acts of ambition, greed, and revenge, as are the characters, whom you'd scarcely believe live only on the page. For popular collections everywhere.-Barbara Conaty, Library of Congress (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Book Review
Another polished and entertaining thriller from the prolific Silva, this one tracking dark secrets in Vatican City. To widely held suspicions that Pope Pius XII was complicit in the Holocaust, Silva adds a compelling premise: What if Pope John Paul's successor, here the fictional Pope Paul VII, made information public proving that Pius XII and the Vatican colluded with the Nazis? (The author notes in a postscript that the Vatican Secret Archives, currently sealed off to historians, may house documents that verify the alleged collaboration.) A swirl of intrigue, pursuit, and assassination is set spinning in the wake of Paul VII's threat. First, someone murders Professor Benjamin Stern in Munich. Investigators there blame neo-Nazis, but Israel's secret intelligence agency thinks something more sinister is afoot. They send art restorer and hit man Gabriel Allon (The Kill Artist, 2000; The English Assassin, p. 15) to investigate. Moving from Germany to Italy and England (in a series of sharply observed scenes), Allon learns that Stern, at work on a book, had uncovered information about Pius XII's trafficking with the Germans during WWII. Crux Vera, a brotherhood secretly operating within the Vatican, will kill to suppress these revelations. So when Crux Vera discovers that Allon is on their scent, they want him taken out and dispatch the Leopard, a professional assassin who finds that killing whets his appetite for kinky sex ("'Politics . . . does make for strange bedfellows,'" Katrine, the Leopard's partner, observes post-tryst). But when Allon evades the Leopard, Crux Vera targets the Pope himself, who is poised to address a convocation of Jews in Rome. A suspenseful assassination scene, replete with surprising reversals, caps the chase, with Allon and the Leopard emerging free to stalk and elude each other once again. Familiar material, for sure, but powered by steady pacing, keen detail, and a strong, ironic finish.
Booklist Reviews
/*Starred Review*/ This is the third spy thriller featuring Gabriel Allon, art restorer and reluctant Israeli agent, following The Kill Artist (2000) and The English Assassin [BKL Ja1 & 15 02], and it is utterly compelling reading. Former journalist Silva is a sophisticated writer with a lean, economical style and a gift for shaping riveting action scenes. In addition, his lead character, Allon, is, at once, fiercely intelligent and infinitely weary, seemingly reluctant to deploy his expert and deadly skills. This time out, Gabriel is asked to investigate the vicious murder of his friend Benjamin Stern, a onetime agent who was researching the role of the Vatican in the Holocaust for a book. Gabriel begins to suspect it is the work of a calculating mercenary known as the Leopard--but who was he working for? All the evidence points to Crux Vera, a secretive, moneyed group of Roman Catholics with ties to the highest levels of power within the Vatican. What's more, Gabriel is certain the pope himself is next on the hit list because of his willingness to throw open the secret archives, which document the extent of the Vatican's complicity with the Nazis. Silva's searing portrait of a church under siege by its own corrupt bureaucracy and corporate publicity machine is particularly resonant. An uncommonly intelligent thriller told with elegant precision. ((Reviewed January 1 & 15, 2003)) Copyright 2003 Booklist Reviews
Library Journal Reviews
The leaders of the Crux Vera, a church within the Catholic Church devoted to reversing the effects of the Reformation and the Enlightenment, are uneasy about Paul VII, the new pope. Hard on the heels of the conservative Pole, he causes tremendous consternation when he perseveres in a search for the facts about Pius XII's role in the Holocaust. Gabriel Allon, a master art restorer and part-time Israeli agent (seen in The English Assassin), has an old friend whose research is getting close to the truth. When he is murdered, Gabriel is reactivated and joins battle with an assassin nicknamed the Leopard. Silva, who here loads new excitement into the word thriller, will touch nerves with this hypothetical exploration of the Church's silence on these topics. The Vatican, Venice, and Munich are perfectly drawn as the settings for these dark acts of ambition, greed, and revenge, as are the characters, whom you'd scarcely believe live only on the page. For popular collections everywhere.-Barbara Conaty, Library of Congress Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.
Publishers Weekly Reviews
"If you think Italians have a long memory, you should spend some time in the Middle East. We're the ones who invented the vendetta, not the Sicilians." So maintains Gabriel Allon, art restorer and Mossad hit man, star of Silva's second thriller series (The Mark of the Assassin, etc.). Gabriel is once again reluctantly dragged from his day job (he's working on a Bellini in Venice) by Israeli spymaster Ari Shamron, who heads a team of sleeper Mossad agents scattered all over the world. This time, it's a revenge mission: one of Shamron's agents (an academic working on an exposé about the Vatican's collaboration with the Nazis) has been assassinated. The gunman was working for a secret Vatican society known as Crux Vera. Composed of Roman Curia members and shady rich thugs, this shadow group intends to kill the latest pope to keep him from exposing the Vatican's secret archives. In order to find the gunman (known as "the Leopard," a reclusive European of independent means who hires out his deadly skills to the highest bidder), Gabriel must take up his slain colleague's research, something the Italian and German governments assuredly do not want him to do. Gabriel is hounded all across Europe as he tries to find out the truth about the Nazi collaborators, save the pope and get the Leopard. Silva draws on bizarre WWII secrets uncovered by historians like Susan Zuccotti (whom Silva credits) for his premise. Though the plot sticks close to Silva's well-honed formula, the provocative historical revelations will keep readers enthralled. (Feb.) Forecast: National advertising and a radio satellite tour should insure Silva's usual robust sales. Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.
Reviews from GoodReads
Citations
Silva, D. (2004). The Confessor . Penguin Publishing Group.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Silva, Daniel. 2004. The Confessor. Penguin Publishing Group.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Silva, Daniel. The Confessor Penguin Publishing Group, 2004.
Harvard Citation (style guide)Silva, D. (2004). The confessor. Penguin Publishing Group.
MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)Silva, Daniel. The Confessor Penguin Publishing Group, 2004.
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