The Black Widow (Gabriel Allon, #16)

by Daniel Silva

Old rivalries do not vanish overnight. They slumber just beneath the surface, like the wounds of infidelities, forgotten anniversaries, and unmet emotional needs.

The leader of his cellblock was Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, a firebrand preacher who was one of the foremost theoreticians of jihadism.

Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, or Saladin, was born into a prominent family of Kurds, in the town of Tikrit, in approximately 1138.

It’s who we are. It’s the only way we are going to survive in this land. It is our punishment for having survived.

He pressed his forehead only lightly to the floor to avoid giving himself a dark callused prayer mark—it was known as a zabiba, the Arabic word for raisin—like the marks on the religious men from his village.

“She’s someone who has no business being in this country,” said Gabriel ominously. “And if she’s here, it means there are many more just like her.”