Book Reviews
[The book] is written in broad strokes, with villains more loathsome, terrorist attacks more spectacular and a plot more melodramatic than he's given us in the past. In terms of controversy, it won't hurt that his chief villain is a Saudi billionaire who finances terrorist attacks and is, in truth, a stand-in for the House of Saud itself, which "started the fire of the global jihad movement in the first place," Silva says. The author is quite serious in his contempt for the Saudis—and U.S. officials who are seduced by them—and yet, in an interview that accompanied the book, he jokes that he wants The Messenger to be a good beach read. There is, of course, nothing wrong with a writer wanting to have it both ways.
Patrick Anderson - Washington Post
Bestseller Silva continues to warrant comparisons to John le Carre, as shown by his latest thriller starring Israeli art restorer and spymaster Gabriel Allon. Ahmed bin Shafiq, a former chief of a clandestine Saudi intelligence unit, targets the Vatican for attack, in particular Pope Paul VII and his top aide, Monsignor Luigi Donati, who both appeared in Silva's previous novel, Prince of Fire. Shafiq, who now heads his own terrorist network, is allied with a militant Islamic Saudi businessman known as Zizi, a true believer committed to the destruction of all infidels. Gabriel's challenge is to infiltrate Zizi's organization, a task he assigns to a beautiful American art expert, Sarah Bancroft. Gabriel promises he'll protect her, but plans go awry, and by the end Sarah faces torture and death. While Sarah's fate is never in doubt, the way Silva resolves his plot will keep readers right where he wants them: on the edges of their seats.
Publishers Weekly
Echoes of 9/11 haunt Silva's sixth Gabriel Allon thriller. An attack on the Vatican leads the art restorer and Mossad agent on the trail of a wealthy Saudi suspected of financing al-Qaeda. Because Zizi collects Impressionist art, Gabriel creates a fake Van Gogh and enlists Sarah Bancroft, an American art historian, to infiltrate the ruthless billionaire's entourage. The author masterfully weaves together the worlds of art, espionage, and terrorism; few thriller writers balance entertainment and serious issues so well. The novel's structure is unusual for Silva, with Gabriel becoming secondary to Sarah in the second half, but the fears she faces are gripping. Recommended for all collections.
Michael Adams - Library Journal
The five previous spy thrillers featuring Gabriel Allon addressed topics including the Munich Olympics massacre, Yasir Arafat, and the Vatican. The Messenger, about global terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism, resounded just as loudly with critics. Fortunately, Daniel Silva has also written an ingenious, thrilling, and entertaining book with complex characters and settings, from London and Jerusalem to Rome, that serve the plot well. While one critic cited Silva's bias toward Israel, the majority felt that the author created characters with different perspectives and left readers to form their own opinions. In the end, they agreed with the assess-ment of the Philadelphia Inquirer: "Gabriel Allon remains one of the most intriguing heroes of any thriller series."
Bookmarks Magazine
(Starred review.) An engrossing and beautifully written contemporary spy thriller. —Connie Fletcher
Booklist