Gabriel Allon is one of my favorite characters...I love his professionalism (both professions, assassin and art restorer), I love Chairi, his wife. I love his friends Eli and Ari. I love the fact Gabriel -- OK, really Daniel Silva, informs me about the Middle East and its complications. I can always plan to LEARN something reading about Gabriel...and this book does not disappoint. For this book, we learn about the connections between Iran and Hezbollah, described by a US federal agent as "the Gambinos on steroids." We see how connection to connection to connection ties Hezbollah to the Vatican Bank, and ultimately Luigi Donati, the secretary to the Pope, and Gabriel's friend from other stories.

A suicide jump to the floor of St. Peter's Basilica? Murder? Accident? Donati hopes Gabriel will be able to investigate quietly. But when has Gabriel done anything quietly? As with other books, we travel all over Europe and the Middle East. This time, we see Old Jerusalem up close, including the convoluted system that denies Jews access to their own ancient Temple Mount.

Gun battles, terrorists, kidnapping...the pace is breathtaking. Along the way, Gabriel continues to suffer from his last mission and continues to try to find a balance in his life, so he can HAVE a life.

I've been thinking a lot about Common Core's insistence that students must read nonfiction...argumentative nonfiction. I learned so much from this book, this novel, this well-researched novel. I cannot believe I would have learned half so much reading the original nonfiction pieces Silva did for his book...

It's the narrative, the characters, the conflict, that bring the Middle East to life in Silva's books. He teaches me through his fiction...