"I will tell him the truth."
My posts are likely to remain sporadic for quite a while longer, so bear with me. I'm taking a heavy load of classes this semester and I'm swamped with course-related reading, assignments, lectures, and papers to deal with. My reading-for-fun has largely been curtailed to time spent on the bus coming home from work/the gym and the odd half-hour before bedtime, so I doubt I'll have much to contribute until, oh, say, April 2006.
I did manage to finish a quick little spy novel this week, Daniel Silva's A Death in Vienna. I picked this book largely because I knew I could finish it sometime before winter ends, and it didn't disappoint. Silva's books aren't particularly deep, but they're satisfying little thrillers that are perfect for an overloaded mind. A Death in Vienna is the latest entry in a now three-part series featuring Gabriel Allon, an Israeli intelligence officer and assassin who spends his downtime restoring famous works of art in Italy. Allon is ambivalent about his role in Israeli policy and maintains a lengthy detachment from the less savory applications of his prodigious skills. But try as he might to remove himself from the web of his past associations, when Ari Shamron (Israeli's deposed but highly influential former head of intelligence) calls, he is compelled to answer.
Shamron's latest assignment for Allon is one that takes Gabriel back to his least favorite place - Vienna. Site of the car bombing that killed his child and left his wife catatonic, Gabriel is reluctant to investigate the bombing of the Wartime Claims and Inquiries Office, an outfit dedicated to bringing the perpetrators of the Holocaust to justice. Gabriel's investigations quickly lead him to a former concentration camp officer living under an assumed name, and the crimes this man is hiding will blow Gabriel's past wide open.
Silva's becoming one of my favorite authors, largely because he writes intelligent, swiftly-paced thrillers that actually attempt to teach me some history instead of focusing on filling my head with nonsensical plots and poorly written sex scenes. His work is definitely a cut above most others in the genre, and that's why I stick with him throughout the numerous twists and turns of his plots. Now that I've finished his Allon trilogy, at some point I'll delve into his non-series backlist. I imagine that should happen around 2009 or thereabouts, so stay tuned for that.
I did manage to finish a quick little spy novel this week, Daniel Silva's A Death in Vienna. I picked this book largely because I knew I could finish it sometime before winter ends, and it didn't disappoint. Silva's books aren't particularly deep, but they're satisfying little thrillers that are perfect for an overloaded mind. A Death in Vienna is the latest entry in a now three-part series featuring Gabriel Allon, an Israeli intelligence officer and assassin who spends his downtime restoring famous works of art in Italy. Allon is ambivalent about his role in Israeli policy and maintains a lengthy detachment from the less savory applications of his prodigious skills. But try as he might to remove himself from the web of his past associations, when Ari Shamron (Israeli's deposed but highly influential former head of intelligence) calls, he is compelled to answer.
Shamron's latest assignment for Allon is one that takes Gabriel back to his least favorite place - Vienna. Site of the car bombing that killed his child and left his wife catatonic, Gabriel is reluctant to investigate the bombing of the Wartime Claims and Inquiries Office, an outfit dedicated to bringing the perpetrators of the Holocaust to justice. Gabriel's investigations quickly lead him to a former concentration camp officer living under an assumed name, and the crimes this man is hiding will blow Gabriel's past wide open.
Silva's becoming one of my favorite authors, largely because he writes intelligent, swiftly-paced thrillers that actually attempt to teach me some history instead of focusing on filling my head with nonsensical plots and poorly written sex scenes. His work is definitely a cut above most others in the genre, and that's why I stick with him throughout the numerous twists and turns of his plots. Now that I've finished his Allon trilogy, at some point I'll delve into his non-series backlist. I imagine that should happen around 2009 or thereabouts, so stay tuned for that.
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