In this, his seventh novel about the world-class art restorer and Israeli intelligence operative Gideon Allon, Silva once again places the fate of the world in Allon’s hands, or in this case, thousands of innocent citizens in London and the daughter of the American Ambassador to England who are threatened with death by radical Islamic jihadists.

The story moves along briskly and is filled with amazing gadgets and technology, fierce Israeli agents, blood-thirsty, evil, Islamists, and bumbling British officials.  As I was reading the book, I kept thinking that it reminded me of another series I’ve been reading, and I finally realized that it was, of all things, the Hardy Boys.

I’m reading this series of adventure stories from my own boyhood to my 9 year old grandson, mostly over the phone on Facetime.  Now on volume 15, the plot and tempo of those books is very similar to Silva’s Allon novels.  In the Hardy Boys books, the innocent, fresh-scrubbed teenagers are minding their own business when they are thrown into a ‘case’ where their detection skills help to identify perpetrators, often seeking to undermine some element of American well-being. The Hardy Boys are inevitably mildy roughed up, kidnapped, and threatened with death, just like Allon, but both the boys and the Israeli are eventually freed and succeed in catching the bad guys and saving America or the world.  Silva has taken a page from Franklin Dixon’s playbook!

In this caper, Allon manages to survive being kidnapped by the bad guys, tortured and beaten, and is rescued by the Israeli agents operating in the UK just in time to save the Ambassador’s daughter and avoid another suicide bombing. Whew!

These books are light fare and go down easy.  Not great literature, but a fun way to spend a couple of days with Gideon and his gang.  While reading this book, I was tense with concern about the Ambassador’s daughter, but then I realized that for there to be an eighth book in this series (which now has run to 22 books!) everything would have to end up happily.  Just like the Hardy Boys!!!