Travis Simpkins: "The Heist" by Daniel Silva

"The Heist"

by Daniel Silva

HarperCollins, 2014

Brief Review by Travis Simpkins

An intriguing mix of murder, art theft, espionage and terrorism is masterfully typed out in the pages of The Heist, the fourteenth entry in the popular "Gabriel Allon" book series by Daniel Silva. The story begins with Gabriel Allon quietly restoring a Veronese altarpiece in Venice, when he is called upon to investigate the brutal death of an illicit art dealer and find the most famous stolen painting in history: Caravaggio's "Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence" which has been missing for more than 40 years. To find the lost Caravaggio, Gabriel Allon must first steal another masterpiece, Vincent Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" and sabotage the finances of the Syrian royal family.

Gabriel Allon remains one of the great characters and paradoxes of modern fiction, with decidedly opposing halves… one gentle, the other lethal. It is no wonder that former U.S. President Bill Clinton cites Gabriel Allon as his favorite fictional character. Daniel Silva is a master at interweaving genres, historical periods and topics. His knowledge of the areas in which he writes is substantial, adding a real sense of place to the descriptions… from the art galleries of London to the rich villas of Lake Como, from the Church of San Sebastiano in Venice to the secure warehouses of the Geneva Freeport, from the backstreets of Paris to to the corridors of King Saul Boulevard, from the town of Linz to the Swiss countryside, and from a small village in Corsica to the war-ravaged city of Hama, Syria.

The story is fictional, but many real-life aspects of the trade in stolen art are laid bare, with examples of real-life stolen paintings including Modigliani's "Woman with a Fan" which was stolen from the Paris Museum of Modern Art in 2010. The fictional characters, many making reappearances, are thoroughly enthralling as well, including Gabriel's lovely wife Chiara, Ari Shamron, Eli Lavon and Jihan Nawaz.

Touchy subjects involving the Syrian civil conflict are dealt with in a bravura manner, which is the basis for a large portion of the plot. As with his other Gabriel Allon books, Silva combines art crime and espionage with adept skill, and The Heist is one of the best entries thus far.