Good Reads / Community Library Notes
The Other Woman
Daniel Silva
Review by Priscilla Comen
The Other Woman
Daniel Silva
Review by Priscilla Comen
The Other Woman, by Daniel Silva, is the story of Gabriel Allon, an expert renovator of ancient paintings in the Vatican, and a spy for Israel. At this time, he’s tracking a Russian named Kirov, (AKA Heathcliff) who is about to defect to Israel. He will be turned over to the British. Mikhail and Keller await Kirov at the Vienna train station to take him to a safe house. But a few blocks from the station, Heathcliff (Kirov) is shot dead by a man on a motorcycle. Gabriel watches from an upstairs apartment window, then is driven away by his assistant, Lavon. Keller and Mikhail follow the cyclist at high speed, but the man races ahead. The cycle crashes and the driver is thrown onto the pavement and is killed. Keller photographs him. Questions abound: who had followed the murdered Russian? Who was the man on the motorcycle?
Gabriel flies home to Israel to meet with Eli Navot, the former chief of the bureau. He knows Gabriel did not order the killing of Kirov although Russia says he did. We meet Yossi, Rimona, and Yaakov who work for Gabriel. Gabriel gives them seventy-two hours to discover who signed Kirov’s death warrant. We also meet Chiara, Gabriel’s current, lovely wife, and mother of their two children, Raphael and Irene. His first wife had been killed by a car bomb that also killed his young son. Uzi Navot wants to go to Vienna to investigate the event. He likes the food there. Author Silva adds humor where he can.
Gabriel sneaks into London via Paris and attends a private meeting with Graham Seymour, a top man in British government. They discuss the Kirov incident and ask where the leak might have come from. Gabriel thinks the Vienna head, a British man, is on the Russian payroll. His name is Alistair Hughes. He flies to Washington to meet with Rebecca Manning, head of a Washington bureau. Meanwhile, in Vienna, Hughes’ apartment is bugged with listening devices by Lavon and Keller who will monitor Hughes constantly. They consider him their “patient.” One day, Hughes makes reservations to fly to Bern, Switzerland, and Gabriel does the same.
Eva Fernandez is the hostess at a posh Washington DC restaurant where the elite go to dine. At home, after work, she turns on the electronic device that was passed to her at the restaurant. It receives Russian documents. She will take the memory stick to Canada to the Moscow Center. Her alibi is an ailing aunt n Montreal. Gabriel watches Hughes at another hotel on his laptop monitor. Hughes receives an envelope from a Russian while sitting in the dining room. As he leaves the hotel, he is hit by a car and killed when he crosses the boulevard. The papers say it was a hit and run accident. Gabriel doesn’t believe in accidents.
Gabriel doesn’t believe Hughes was a spy, but rather a patient at a Bern clinic for psychological problems. Both Graham and Gabriel want to find out who the mole is. A real spy from that era, Kim Philby, comes into the story. Educated at Cambridge, he became a devout Communist, and part of the “Magnificent Five," who stole secrets and passed them to the Soviet Embassy in London. Philby, when he thought he’d been discovered, buried his camera and film in a shallow grave in Maryland, USA. He had an affair with a French woman, Charlotte Betencourt, and there is a child. Charlotte is found by Keller and she and Gabriel discuss everything about her life, including her daughter.
Who is the child? Does she follow in her father’s footsteps and become a mole as an adult? What happens to Eva and to Rebecca Manning? Which one is the daughter of Philby? Is the film and camera found in the shallow grave? Author Silva is a master storyteller and excels in this novel. Find it on the mystery shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.
Gabriel flies home to Israel to meet with Eli Navot, the former chief of the bureau. He knows Gabriel did not order the killing of Kirov although Russia says he did. We meet Yossi, Rimona, and Yaakov who work for Gabriel. Gabriel gives them seventy-two hours to discover who signed Kirov’s death warrant. We also meet Chiara, Gabriel’s current, lovely wife, and mother of their two children, Raphael and Irene. His first wife had been killed by a car bomb that also killed his young son. Uzi Navot wants to go to Vienna to investigate the event. He likes the food there. Author Silva adds humor where he can.
Gabriel sneaks into London via Paris and attends a private meeting with Graham Seymour, a top man in British government. They discuss the Kirov incident and ask where the leak might have come from. Gabriel thinks the Vienna head, a British man, is on the Russian payroll. His name is Alistair Hughes. He flies to Washington to meet with Rebecca Manning, head of a Washington bureau. Meanwhile, in Vienna, Hughes’ apartment is bugged with listening devices by Lavon and Keller who will monitor Hughes constantly. They consider him their “patient.” One day, Hughes makes reservations to fly to Bern, Switzerland, and Gabriel does the same.
Eva Fernandez is the hostess at a posh Washington DC restaurant where the elite go to dine. At home, after work, she turns on the electronic device that was passed to her at the restaurant. It receives Russian documents. She will take the memory stick to Canada to the Moscow Center. Her alibi is an ailing aunt n Montreal. Gabriel watches Hughes at another hotel on his laptop monitor. Hughes receives an envelope from a Russian while sitting in the dining room. As he leaves the hotel, he is hit by a car and killed when he crosses the boulevard. The papers say it was a hit and run accident. Gabriel doesn’t believe in accidents.
Gabriel doesn’t believe Hughes was a spy, but rather a patient at a Bern clinic for psychological problems. Both Graham and Gabriel want to find out who the mole is. A real spy from that era, Kim Philby, comes into the story. Educated at Cambridge, he became a devout Communist, and part of the “Magnificent Five," who stole secrets and passed them to the Soviet Embassy in London. Philby, when he thought he’d been discovered, buried his camera and film in a shallow grave in Maryland, USA. He had an affair with a French woman, Charlotte Betencourt, and there is a child. Charlotte is found by Keller and she and Gabriel discuss everything about her life, including her daughter.
Who is the child? Does she follow in her father’s footsteps and become a mole as an adult? What happens to Eva and to Rebecca Manning? Which one is the daughter of Philby? Is the film and camera found in the shallow grave? Author Silva is a master storyteller and excels in this novel. Find it on the mystery shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.