Blown Away - Rated 
I've never read anything by this author before and I thought the book was awesome!
Although I didn't like the amount of sleep I lost because I just couldn't put it down!
Fab, fab, fab!!
Gabriel Allon now ready for retirement - Rated 
I have read all Daniel Silva's books and enjoyed most of them until the Prince of Fire when it was apparent that Mr Silva was fast running out of ideas for his Gabriel Allon character.
Nowadays I am suspicious of authors who write book after book with the same character. The character tends to become too familiar and often predictable, for me every character has a sell by date. It's also too easy to write book after book with the same character and having written superb books like The Unlikely Spy and The Marching Season it's obvious how talented Daniel Silva is so why as they say in the movies become type cast.
Anyway back to the plot. The Messenger starts out well enough but soon becomes all too predictable and to be honest quite stupid. I cannot fathom the authors obsession of having the Vatican yet again as a significant part of the story
From being a mere mortal spy and assassin Gabriel Allon has been turned into a superhero who has dinner with the Pope and the United States President.
I'm sorry but this book is very dissappointing and will be the last Gabriel Allon book I read. Sadly I see Mr Silva is remaining on the quick and easy path as his latest hardback is again Gabriel Allon.
Let me give me you a big tip try "Spy Dance" by Allan Topol there is more intrigue, suspense and spy tradecraft in the first 4 chapters than the whole of The Messenger and The Prince of Fire.
Wonderful Escapism - Page turning stuff - Rated
Loved this book. I've not read anything anywhere near as good as this since I used to read "Ian Flemming". I actually lost quite a bit of sleep over several nights as I couldn't put the book down. Very low brow - hardly a taxing read, but with a gripping style that's perfect for a poolside read on holiday.
Best of all the characters are fairly three dimensional, and by the middle of the book you actually start to care about their survival, and that they will reach their aims.
Highly recommended escapism. Can't wait for the film franchise to pick it up.
Read This Book If You Love Spy Tradecraft - Rated 
The spy novel genre hasn't been the same since the cold war ended. Magnificent fictional forays and counter-forays of east and west against one another with the fate of the world in the balance provided marvelous drama that led to wonderful plots, seat-squirming suspense, and intense emotional involvement with the characters. Many have tried to resurrect the spy novel genre with modern-day terror and antiterrorist activities. In most cases, these stories don't carry the same weight. It's as though we know the tales are too fanciful to be real.
In the Messenger, Daniel Silva has recaptured some of the zest of the cold war spy stories in an intense tale of an innocent sent out among the lethal to identify a terrorist leader. You'll easily find yourself imagining that you are Sarah Bancroft, a curator at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., who is recruited to infiltrate a terrorist-supporting Saudi billionaire's entourage.
The plot is quite a complex one. Gabriel Allon has been retired from spying while he quietly pursues his profession of art restorer. Israeli intelligence is checking out a terror suspect when the man is accidentally killed, leaving his laptop computer to be accessed. From the images, the Israelis conclude that the Vatican is a target. Allon is brought in to see what can be done to avoid an attack. Soon, events roll into motion that require more than prevention at the Vatican as the Israelis target a former Saudi official who seems to be running terror networks. Sarah Bancroft is recruited, and the hunt is on. Time is of the essence. Can they identify the target before the terrorists identify Sarah's true allegiances?
The book's main weakness is that connecting the book's opening to the rest of the series takes up a lot of space. If you've read the other books, you don't need that much background. If you haven't read the other books, it's still too much. Then, the development of the spy gambit takes awhile to get off the ground. As a result, not much of the good material in the book occurs before page 110. But stick around. If you are patient with the opening, you'll be pleased with the rest, especially after page 162.
Good but the author is coasting - Rated 
The Messenger is the latest in the long running series of novels starring Israeli spy/assassin/art restorer Gabriel Allon, and it far from the best.
That's not to say that its a bad book. Its a well paced, exciting contemporary thriller There are even some improvements on previous Allon novels, such as a reduction in the overt one dimensional pro-Israeli bias that afflicted Prince of Fire in particular. On the whole however, whilst there is nothing fundamentally wrong with The Messenger it feels like the author, Daniel Silva, is coasting. The plot lacks the compelling hook of previous Allon novels and is slight and tends towards the formulaic by comparison. The page turning intensity isn't quite there either; or at least not to extent we're used to.
Whether this is simply due to the author having and off-period or for some deeper seated reason is impossible to tell. There is however, a feeling that the character of Gabriel Allon has run his course as a lead protagonist. Relegated by circumstances to the role of senior man, manager and coordinator rather than solo agent, he is reduced to an observer on the sidelines for much of the latter half of the book. Since he still remains the novel's focus whilst being able to do little more than brood it reduces the level of excitement the story engenders as it unfolds.
In this respect Silva has encountered the same problem that has afflicted authors such as Tom Clancy, Dale Brown and Stephen Coonts; namely that when you have a recurring lead he or she must inevitably age and with that process is forced to become less of the action hero and potentially less interesting as a result. In these circumstances an author must decide to either retire a character or develop him or her in new but still interesting ways to prevent a series becoming stale. With The Messenger it would appear that Silva has not yet decided what to do with Allon and as a consequence the book feels like the series treading water. It will be interesting to see if it stays that way with the next book or whether Silva finds a new and entertaining direction to propel Allon and his career in.
In the meantime for fans of the series The Messenger has much to recommend it. Just don't expect the wholly compelling, unputdownable read you're used to.
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