If you like socialist, progressive propaganda, this is the book for you. Enough said. ( )

Yet another installment of Daniel Silva's Law & Order, ripped from the headlines, series following the illustrious Gabriel Allon as Israel's superhero. This time the focus is Russia. They've been poisoning emigres in London, stealing state assets and hiding them in the West, pushing opponents out of high-rise windows in thinly disguised suicides, pampering oligarchs and targeting misinformation to topple foreign regimes. Silva never mentions Putin or Trump but the descriptions leave no doubt as to who he is referring to. Their partner in crime is the dirty RhineBank but in the acknowledgements Silva names Deutsche Bank as the complicit partner in all the bad stuff. Since Jan 6th occurred before this book was to be published the final chapters were hastily rewritten to fit the latest headlines. Too juicy to ignore. And the Russian link was too easy to pass up on. Q had to be Russian.

And of course there's the damsel in distress who turns out to be both a brilliant beautiful, compliance officer at RhineBank who has turned away from a life where she could have been a concert cellist to the much more lucrative world of finance. But RhineBank is more interested in lucrative profits than listening to a woman telling them there's too much risk. She eventually tires of being overruled and decides to blindly sign off on all the deals she knows she shouldn't. Too talented to get rid of she earns the right to pick her assignment. She chooses to head for the center of the dirty dealing, the so-called Russian laundromat, the division of RhineBank where the money gets laundered. She kicks things off by giving incriminating copies to a journalist known for her anti-Russian writing. Things don't go well and she and the journalist become unwitting accomplices to a Russian assassination of a wealthy Russian émigré who had gotten Gabriel and his wife out of a Russian jail. Yes Gabriel's past always pops up in the latest adventure.

Speaking of the past, many of the usual suspects make cameo appearances, Ari, Chiara, Eli, Julian, etc. And the bevy of women who've fallen for Gabriel show up. This time Sarah Bancroft seems to kick off this story, selling art to the Russian émigré, only to fade into the background. And yes Gabriel's skills as an art restorer are employed. We even get to revisit his time spent with a concert pianist who of course has never forgiven him for abandoning her. But these are sub plots, The real story is financial. Lots of hidden assets, layers of shadow corporations, and the constant trade matching. Who knew? While I'm sure that's the way the game was played they make much less interesting reading than the usual blow things up events.

But Jan 6th was just too tempting to ignore. It fit in perfectly as a plot the Russians were behind. I won't spill the beans so the real plot twist will still come as a surprise. It's a very quick read, as usual. ( )

The Cellist is a book that is insufferable in certain parts. It is long and goes on and on with nothing happening insofar as plot goes. The story follows global politics prior to and during the 2020 presidential election. The conclusion of the book is worth the slow moving parts. The author succinctly sums up the United States political situation during the 2020 election proving that the Russians really did meddle in the U.S. election. Four stars were given to this book. ( )

This was a re-write of the last one I read, 'The Heist', but with boring and complicated sections about money-laundering. The use of real-life characters in all but name didn't really work for me and I skimmed the last third.

I am done with this series. ( )

Except for being carbon copy of previous Gabriel Allon novels this one comes across as being extremely clichéd for the second half of the book ( )