The Messenger (Gabriel Allon) (U)

The #1 national bestseller from the author of Prince of Fire On the trail of a deadly al-Qaeda operative, Gabriel Allon returns in a spellbinding story of deception, power, and revenge by the New York Times bestselling "world-class practitioner of spy fiction" (Washington Post). The Washington Post - Patrick Anderson [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.