The Confessor by Daniel Silva: A review

Art restorer Mario Delvecchio, aka Israeli agent/assassin Gabriel Allon, is engaged in the meticulous and tedious task of restoring a Benini altarpiece in a church in Venice when his friend and fellow Israeli agent Benjamin Stern is murdered in Munich. Benjamin was a history professor there who had been in the process of writing a book. The subject of the book had been kept secret by him, but all of his notes and the draft of the book were stolen from his apartment by his killer; thus, it seems likely that the book was the motive for his murder.

Soon, Gabriel/Mario is contacted by his Israeli handler, Ari Shamron, and is sent on a mission to Munich to find out what happened to Benjamin and who killed him.

His investigation leads him to London, to an investigative reporter there who was apparently collaborating with Benjamin on the book. Shortly after Gabriel meets with him, the reporter, too, is murdered. Obviously, the subject of the book must have been explosive.

Following the clues that he has and his own intuition based on his knowledge of his friend Benjamin, Gabriel learns that the book dealt with the Catholic Church and the Church's complicity with the Nazis during World War II. During the time of Pope Pius XII, the Church failed to stand up and condemn the Nazis for their treatment of Jews and other minorities and it failed to give sanctuary to those who were trying to escape. After the war, it assisted some of the Nazi hierarchy that had survived to escape from Europe and the Nuremberg trials. Evidently, Benjamin had collected hard evidence of this complicity.

Meanwhile, in Rome, a new (fictional) Pope Paul VII has also been agonizing over this history and wants to release all of the information about what happened during those years. He wants to make all the documents public and to ask the Jewish community to forgive the Church for its failures. He wants to confess.

There are powerful forces within the Church that oppose the pope's desire to come clean and they are willing to go to any lengths - including assassination - to stop him.

If this sounds a bit like a Dan Brown novel, that's because it is. Secret societies within the Catholic Church have been popular subjects for several writers in recent years and this is Daniel Silva's take on them. He devised an interesting plot with which to explore the subject and his character, Gabriel Allon, is sympathetic and one wants to see him succeed.

But - and of course there is a but - this is the third book in the series and already the stories seem to be quite formulaic. The reluctant assassin is pulled from the job he loves as an art restorer and sent on a dangerous mission to engage and destroy the enemies of Israel. Along the way he meets a beautiful woman who becomes hopelessly, helplessly attracted to him and follows him on his mission. He overcomes many seemingly impossible obstacles, finally enduring horrible, life-threatening injuries in the course of chasing his quarry. But he still manages to overcome all barriers and to prevail.

Any series does inevitably use a formula and it must be a real challenge to keep the plots fresh and the stories unique. Unfortunately, this entry just seemed a bit stale to me and it is my least favorite of the ones I have read so far.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

How about we share another Mary Oliver poem? After all, you can never have too many of those. In this one, the poet seems to acknowledge that it is often hard to simply live in and enjoy the moment, perhaps because we are afraid it can't last. She urges us to give in to that moment and fully experience the joy. Although "much can never be redeemed, still, life has some possibility left." Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is no...

Poetry Sunday: Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney

My mother was a farm wife and a prodigious canner. She canned fruit and vegetables from the garden, even occasionally meat. But the best thing that she canned, in my opinion, was blackberry jam. Even as I type those words my mouth waters! Of course, before she could make that jam, somebody had to pick the blackberries. And that somebody was quite often named Dorothy. I think Seamus Heaney might have spent some time among the briars plucking those delicious black fruits as well, so he would have known that "Once off the bush the fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour." They don't keep; you have to get that jam made in a hurry! Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust ...

Poetry Sunday: Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman

You probably remember poet Amanda Gorman from her appearance at the inauguration of President Biden. She read her poem "The Hill We Climb" on that occasion. After the senseless slaughter in Uvalde this week, she was inspired to write another poem which was published in The New York Times. It seemed perfect for the occasion and so I stole it in order to feature it here, just in case you didn't get a chance to read it in the Times . Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman Everything hurts, Our hearts shadowed and strange, Minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new; We knew it as home, As horror, As heritage. Even our children Cannot be children, Cannot be. Everything hurts. It’s a hard time to be alive, And even harder to stay that way. We’re burdened to live out these days, While at the same time, blessed to outlive them. This alarm is how we know We must be altered — That we must differ or die, That we must triumph or try. ...

The Nature of Things

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