Silva, a Catholic born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, is the author of 23 spy novels, nearly all featuring the head of the Israeli Intelligence Service, The Office.  I’ve read three of his prior books, and found all of them gripping and tense.

This one is no exception as Gabriel Allon, art restorer and retired head of The Office, is pressed back into service ostensibly to recover the Vermeer painting stolen from the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum in Boston in 1999.  While tracking down the painting which has disappered from the safe of a slain South African bad guy, he encounters yet another beautiful, dangerous, smart, and enchanting woman, in this case a thief who had stolen the Vermeer from the S. African. Together, along with the heads of the CIA and the Danish intelligence service, race to prevent the use of nucler weapons by Putin in Ukraine.  It’s a tense tale told with verve and panache.

Silva is one of the best in the tradition of Robert Ludlum.  This book was a good distraction from the daily news but did make it a bit hard for me to sleep as Allon and his compatriots battled the Russians.