The Confessor

In `The Confessor', the third of the Gabriel Allon thrillers, the election of a new Pontiff coincides with the appearance of various papers minuting meetings, during World War II, between officials of the Vatican and the Nazi Party. They clearly show the Vatican's silent complicity with the Nazi policy of Jewish extermination.As the new Pontiff attempts a final reconciliation between the Catholic Church and Judaism the resistance to his policy within the Curia grows; a number of murders inevitably follow and, since one of them involves a close friend of Gabriel Allon, both Gabriel and Israeli intelligence find themselves drawn into the unfold maelstrom.I have just one relatively minor criticism: the way Gabriel deals with an attempt on his life - his rather indiscriminate use of both a Beretta and sub-machine gun leaves four members of the Italian police dead and six wounded - reduced a five star rating to four.In the earlier books I felt both Gabriel Allon and Ari Shamron were slightly unbelievable characters and in need of further development. In `The Confessor', perhaps helped by the final appearance of the beautiful Chiara Zolli, Daniel Silva has deftly resolved that particular issue and given us a genuinely gripping thriller.Read and enjoy.

"The Confessor" is the third book of the Gabriel Allon series and in my opinion it's the best so far. However, I believe I would've enjoyed it more if I hadn't read "The English Assassin" before.Someone is assassinated --> Shamron involves Gabriel in the murder case --> it becomes clear that the victim was killed to prevent him from revealing an organization's involvement in the Jewish holocaust during WW2 --> someone central in the plot is targeted by a notorious assassin --> the threat is solved, but not by Allon -- it fits like a glove for both "The English Assassin" and "The Confessor". Most of the characters may be different and they may be travelling to different cities, but I had a constant feeling that I'd read it before.Also, once again Allon is irrelevant to the story climax, which is a bit irritating. Had he not been there and the outcome would be the same, which is something that also happened in the first two books.However, it's a fun book to read because it keeps a very high pace, the Catholic Church behavior during WW2 is a captivating theme, and there are also some very tense moments, such as the Rome shootout and the synagogue speech.+: pace, tension and subject; believable plot from start to finish-: unoriginal storyline; once again Allon is a non-factor in the book climax=: If I hadn't read "The English Assassin" before, I would rate it 4 out of 5; even so, "The Confessor" is a book that thriller fans will certainly enjoy

I have enjoyed Daniel Silva since I first discovered him when someone left one of his books a t a holiday villa we stayed at. I do like his work but feel he's now appraoching his books with a "formula" type I look forward to reading some new angle as felt this was slightly "Dan Brown" though not sure who came first.....

An exciting read. Part of a trilogy so read all of them! Excellent.

book was delivered in a timely manner and the product met the description, many thanks