Prince of Fire

Written by Daniel Silva & Reviewed by Detective Dru

Part One: The Dossier

An all too familiar opening for a Silva novel.  A truck bomb at an Israeli embassy in Rome followed by a tinted sedan brandishing four gunmen to waste the survivors.  Back in Tiberias, Ari Shamron and his boss Lev are informed. The PM asks Ari to craft a statement. Their cohort Pazner is near Rome and takes the lead on the Israeli investigation, as well as managing Italian authorities. They receive a tip and discover a disk in Milan that could be a clue. Ari decodes it but intends to tell the Italians he had no luck due to the contents.

Resident hero Gabriel Allon is in London now, visiting wife Leah in some psychiatric hospital. He meets with Julian Isherwood (previous book) about an auction.  Gabe is in love with Chiara and plans to tell Leah tomorrow. Julian offers 200k for Gabe to restore some painting they inspected.  Gabe sees Leah but can’t tell her about Chiara out of pity and guilt. He returns to Venice where Ari is awaiting him. He even refers to Gabe by his real name in public??  Uh-oh, that’s like when Mom uses your middle name.  Gabe’s in trouble.

The disc Ari decoded had a very robust and accurate dossier on Gabe as well as multiple photos. Cover blown. Ari insists he is to return to Israel to find the PLOs responsible for the bombing, as well as the future ones planned. Gabe tells his art boss he’s leaving with Chiara.  Lev is already short with Gabe when he returns, insisting he report only to Lev and also rejected Gabe’s demand that Chiara be sidelined, even though her cover is blown just like his.  Gabe is given a team of four to track Daoud Hadawi, the PLO mastermind.  Dina is a team member and she has a theory about Khaled.

On to Khaled Al-Khalifa. Dina gives his briefing back to 1910. Turns out his grandfather was Sheikh Asad, a PLO who was located and killed by Ari Shamron.  Dina continues speaking while Gabe reminisces about Sabri al-Khalifa, apparently the son.  He worked for Yasir Arafat in Jordan flushing out traitorous Palestinians. Eventually he led the team in Munich 72 and Gabe was hired by Ari to hunt him down in vengeance. Now Arafat is terrorizing again and Dina thinks Khalid is going to resurface since disappearing after his father’s funeral in 72. The reason is the timing. Each act took place on 4/18 at 7 pm just like the Arab village Beit Sayeed that was razed by Jews. The signs point to Daoud Hadawi being responsible, since his whole family was born in that village.

Part Two: The Collaborator

Paul Martinique is leading some archaeological dig with his student girlfriend Yvette. He lies to her about evening plans and visits some Arab in Marseille. Shady. Gabe and Chiara have an apartment now. Ari paid for it and told him to fill it with kids. He also gave Gabe Leah’s divorce papers and told Gabe to find his old pal Arafat to handle the Khaled business.  Gabe gets a ride from Ari’s estranged son Yonatan to see Arafat. (um, that was easy) Gabe once saved him from a bullet despite being enemies (previous book) Gabe deduces from their chat that Yasir was the one that ordered the car bomb to kill his son and maim Leah and it was Khaled al-Khalifa that bombed the embassy in Rome.

Chapter eleven was not a favorite. The colonel with one eye during the Arafat meeting is now also some guy named Mahmoud Arwish and he wants to meet with Gabe. Some random named Yaakov escorts the two of them to a secret meeting after they extract Arwish. The guy tells Gabe that Arafat was lying and Khaled is around and they communicate thru some woman, so find the woman, find Khaled.

Somehow Mossad knows all about this woman and her associate “Tony.”  (shouldn’t it be “Paul?”) Gabe becomes the alias Herr Klemp and flies to Egypt to find them.  Gabe meets his contact and he points him to a bar Mimi’s where this woman is. That was awfully easy.  Again.  Gabe finds her home and breaks in. He retrieves audio files that match her and Khaled’s voice and he DLs her garden. He relays the intel to Mossad and they say go to Rome.

Part Three: The Gare de Lyon

Despite the book having very poor momentum, Martineau aka Khaled is blazing hash with Abu Saddiq. Paul is behind the three bombings so far and debriefed on the Paris one. He calls for the Daoud guy to be killed to remove the loose end then he calls Mimi.

The readers are now subjected to multiple chapters of briefings and powerpoints which will be glossed over.  Back in Surrey, England, Leah’s nurse Amira kidnaps her.  Then in Marseilles, Zubair assassinates Quinnell in his bed…whoever the hell these two are.  Then Yasir Arafat has Mahmoud Arwish killed for being a traitor after he finished his mission task. This book is not fun to read.

Chapter twenty one is even worse.  Gabe is tailing Khaled in France about to kill him, when a woman magically appears and warns him off because they’ve got Leah. How convenient this timing. Anyway, Gabe goes with the woman to see Leah and abandons his mission. Khaled aka Paul Martinique makes final arrangements with Abu Saddiq then heads to Paris. He plans to have Abu killed now that his portion is complete. This is now the third or fourth time in the last 50 pages we’ve gone through this anticlimactic routine.

After driving around Troyes France together awaiting instructions, the random lady/kidnapper whisperer “Palestina” gets her final instructions then tells Gabe to drive to Paris. She tells him the boring history of her village along the way and how the Jews destroyed it.  Then for no reason whatsoever, we get a Leah POV chapter.  Completely pointless.  Think of the dog POV chapter in Cujo. You can’t believably immerse yourself in the mind of an animal, just like you can’t do so for an invalid.  And even worse, it doesn’t garnish the story in any way.

“You better blah blah blah or your wife is gonna die” This is quite literally every third sentence from the Palestina girl.  Her and Gabe are at the Metro placing a call. Then comes the Batman 1966 homage!  If there’s an audio version of this book, hopefully Adam West read this chapter.  There are three bombs and one wife, Gabe. Save your wife or stop the bombs.  You can’t do both Caped Crusader!  Gabe stops two of the three and escapes the bombed metro with Leah.  Super unbelievable sequence, but oh well Gabe’s hostage handler Palestina is dead.

Part Four: Sumayriyya

A lazy Susan chapter to commence Part Four. We’re splitting Leah and Gabe up to return to Israel. He’s going thru Italy, she’s not.  Surely, it’ll go off without a hitch?

Shamron and Dina are in Fiumicino Italy. Gabe wants an id on Palestina because she loved Khaled? What good will that do at this point? Anyway, Gabe is after Khaled even though he has two sick wives and now his boss Lev wants briefings. What a disappointment this book.  Gabe learns of some old guy from the evil village. He says the woman’s anecdote from earlier in the book must be the Al-Tamari family. Luckily, he just happened to remember that before his Lev briefing.  Then Lev magically knows a guy, they pay him, and he tells Gabe the girl Palestina is Fellah al-tamari. Great, now we know?? This book is so underwhelming.

Eli Lavon, in a coma after last book, is now magically leading some excavation that Gabe believes connects Fellah and Khaled, and tells Eli to hunt him down using his old Mossad skills. Chiara dumps Gabe because he still hasn’t signed his divorce papers.

And of course this book ends with a complete whimper.  Ari wants Gabe in charge of operations because Lev’s time is almost up.  Ah, yes, riding the old desk job off into the sunset.  How original.   Five months later, in true epilogue form, Gabe kills Paul Martinique aka Khaled while posing as a recreational painter.

The Gabriel Allon series has been far and away a favorite franchise since the days of Jack Ryan and Mr. Bond himself.  This book was heartbreaking, and if another Allon book of such poor quality is ever read again, it will be the last.  Strike one and two for this franchise, Mr. Silva.  Skip this book at all costs, fellow spies!