Prince of Fire by Daniel Silva: A review

The Israeli assassin Gabriel Allon has been outed. His cover as the art restorer Mario Delvechhio has been blown. His enemies know who he is and where he is which puts him in mortal danger.

Responding to the threat, the Israeli intelligence service hastily extracts Allon and his lover, who is also an Israeli agent, from Venice and brings them back to Israel where they are given new quarters and Gabriel must go to the "Office" every day to participate in an inquisition as to how the latest debacle happened.

There had recently been several terrorist bombings of Israeli facilities around the world, bombings that were attributed to Palestinians, but the Israelis must figure out who is planning and executing these attacks. There is an urgency about doing this before another attack takes place.

Meanwhile, Gabriel has made arrangements to bring his wife, Leah, who has been in a nursing facility in England for thirteen years since the explosion that killed their son and seriously injured her, back to Israel. And his current lover is pressuring him to finally divorce Leah and marry her. All the necessary papers have been drawn up; all he has to do is sign them.

The search for the person responsible for the current wave of terrorist attacks leads back to the Black September Movement and to Allon's first assignment as an assassin - to kill those who attacked and killed members of the Israeli Olympic team in Munich in 1972. At length, Gabriel becomes convinced that the perpetrator of these latest attacks may be the son and grandson of earlier terrorists, that it may, in fact, be the son of one of the Black September terrorists that he killed.

Daniel Silva provides quite a fascinating history of how Black September came to be as well as its forerunners. This "history" is fictionalized, of course, and has a definite Israeli bias, but then the protagonist/hero is Israeli, so it could hardly be otherwise. No doubt if he were Palestinian, the "history" would slant a bit differently. Nevertheless, the backstory provided by Silva is based on verifiable historical events and it gives considerable context to the current and ongoing conflict between Palestinians and Israelis over the blood-soaked unholy land of the Middle East.

In my opinion, this fifth book in the Allon series is the best one yet, to a great extent because of the historical background that is given, but also because Silva seems to have a firmer, more sure-handed grasp of his characters this time. And that is to be expected, of course. The more one writes about a character, obviously the better known that character becomes to him.

I found the plot of this book more gripping and compelling than some of the others in the series. It was also pretty straightforward and easy to follow. The moment when Allon learns that his physically and mentally damaged wife has been kidnapped was a turning point in the story and in the series for me. It made Allon somehow more human and sympathetic, not the pitiless automaton that he has occasionally seemed.

Prince of Fire was a thriller in the best sense of the word. It was a book that, once started, I didn't want to put down.

My rating: 4 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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