Prince of Fire (Gabriel Allon, #5) in Espionage Aficionados

Mar 25, 2020 Michael Martz rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Daniel Silva's great spy Gabriel Allon is one of the more distinctive and enduring characters in the genre. He began his association with the Israeli secret service as an assassin ridding the world of the Black September terrorists, moved into more 'traditional' and dangerous roles, retired and unretired, and eventually ascends to the top of the spy pyramid. He's a sort of anti-Reacher in that he's relatively slight in stature and, in the course of his many experiences in this fine series, been Daniel Silva's great spy Gabriel Allon is one of the more distinctive and enduring characters in the genre. He began his association with the Israeli secret service as an assassin ridding the world of the Black September terrorists, moved into more 'traditional' and dangerous roles, retired and unretired, and eventually ascends to the top of the spy pyramid. He's a sort of anti-Reacher in that he's relatively slight in stature and, in the course of his many experiences in this fine series, been shot, tortured, gotten his ass kicked and bones broken, and his son has been killed and wife severely injured in a terrorist assassination attempt. In his free time, or during his retirement phases, he's a world-class art restorer, which is what he's working at in Venice at the beginning of 'Prince of Fire'. It's the 5th book of the 20 in the series, so Allon is relatively early in the game but already a legend.

'Prince of Fire' begins with a huge terrorist suicide bomb attack in Rome. During the course of the following investigation, it's determined that the masterminds had in their possession a dossier containing all the details of the career of Gabriel Allon and this attack, as well as others, were timed to coincide with the anniversaries of specific acts committed by Allon. His mentor and uber-legend, Shamron, reaches out and pulls Gabriel from the relative safety of his retirement, places a team in his charge, and the tracking of the nearly invisible/never-photographed leader of the terrorist cell begins. The group he's leading is small but mighty with world class brains and brawn, and using a combination of technology and human sources they figure out who the terrorist leader is and create a plan to take him down before the next anniversary. Except, there's a bit of a glitch....

There are 3 things I really enjoy about this series. The Allon character, with his quirky backstory and huge talent, is the first. The second is Silva's prose. He has a very distinctive writing style that's on the florid side but very strong and direct otherwise. Thirdly, the descriptions of the inner workings of the Israeli secret service, whether fictional or not, are very cool and often seem to be at the opposite end of the spectrum from the CIA/MI6 crowd. They're like the 'little engine that could'.

'Prince of Fire' has a couple conclusions as the devious plan of the terrorist group only partially succeeds and then final justice is meted out at the very end. It's an exciting chapter in the long and fiery career of Gabriel Allon, the real Prince of Fire. ...more

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