Gabriel and Chiara are summering at their home in Cornwall when the local billionaire, Edward Knight, asks for his help. His much younger wife, Alice, is missing in Spain. Gabriel begins working with the local police, who believe she was murdered. Gabriel suspects she was kidnapped and soon is handling the negotiations. It all falls apart when a desperate Knight wires the money, and Alice is not returned. A few weeks later, Scotland Yard gets in touch and tells Gabriel they believe Edward is behind it all. Gabriel disagrees, concludes it was Alice, and finds her in an alpine cottage. She tells him that Edward was getting his financing from Moscow and that she needed a way out, so she designed the entire scheme. Allon brings her to MI6 and sets in motion a classic operation to catch the Russians.
The two sections of this book lead to different conclusions. The half devoted to the ransom makes you ask, "Why bother?" On the other hand, the chase through Europe and the political/terrorism phase of the book are a blast. Still, you come back to the fact that, over the course of this series, Silva has aged Gabriel. He was a young man when he avenged Munich. Now he's an old man. It's inescapable in reality, and it should be in fiction as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment