Title: The Defector
Author: Daniel Silva
Silva, Daniel (2009). The Defector. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons
LCCN: 2009017613
PS3619.I5443 D44 2009
LC Subjects
- Allon, Gabriel (Fictitious character)–Fiction.
- Terrorism–Prevention–Fiction.
- Intelligence officers–Fiction.
Date Posted: December 4, 2017
Reviewed by Jerry Harkavy[1] Associated Press Aug 30, 2009
Gabriel Allon’s big mistake at the close of Daniel Silva’s 2008 spy thriller, Moscow Rules, was to spare the life of Ivan Kharkov, the ruthless Russian oligarch and arms supplier to al-Qaida.
But it was an astute decision for Silva, one that set the stage for another confrontation between the two mortal enemies and demonstrates anew that the collapse of the Soviet Union doesn’t leave authors short of material to craft suspense-filled conflicts between Russia and the West.
The Defector is the perfect book for fans of well-crafted thrillers, the kind of page-turner that captures the reader from the opening chapter and doesn’t let go.
It’s Silva’s 12th novel and the ninth to showcase the brilliance and daring of Allon, the noted art restorer who occasionally takes an assignment from the Office, Israel’s secret warfare agency modeled after the Mossad.
Allon gets his marching orders while on an extended honeymoon at an Italian villa, where he also is restoring a 17th-century altarpiece for the Vatican. He learns that Col. Grigori Bulganov, the Russian intelligence officer who saved his life and then defected to the West, has gone missing and faces the prospect of execution and burial in an unmarked grave.
The stakes grow higher when Kharkov’s thugs kidnap Allon’s wife, Chiara, herself an Israeli Special Ops agent, from the villa in Umbria, where her two security guards are found dead.
Allon’s assignment takes him at warp speed to the Russian exile community in London, a little-known bank in Switzerland and a villa on Italy’s Lake Como to which he lures Bulganov’s wife to obtain details of her husband’s abduction.
The globe-trotting continues with a visit to a lodge in New York’s Adirondacks that provides sanctuary for Kharkov’s wife and children, then to a dacha in a snowbound birch forest in Russia that offers haunting testimony to Stalin’s butchery 70 years earlier.
Allon and his team get help from the Israelis’ well-placed contacts in Britain’s MI5, which at first suspected that Bulganov was a double agent who defected yet again, this time back to Russia, and in the CIA, which plays a key role in the daring rescue.
As the Cold War becomes a distant memory, spy novels have been forced to adapt.
Silva draws from undisputed master John Le Carré, but without the British author’s projection of moral ambiguity. Silva’s readers can always tell the good guys from the bad.
There’s also a smidgen of James Bond.
Silva, a former wire service correspondent and CNN producer who’s known for the research that informs his novels, spent some time in Russia while working on Moscow Rules. That book and its sequel indicate that the country has a way to go to come to terms with its KGB past.
Review by Kate Ayers[2]
“For Gabriel Allon—a child of Holocaust survivors, a gifted artist and restorer, an assassin and spy—life had been anything but normal.”
How could life possibly be normal, when he possesses the skills of 20 men and the courage to use them? He started young and, from the outset, has fought for what he believes in, winning battles against crushing odds. And he has lost much of what he loved.
Now, months after Gabriel’s daring feats in Moscow Rules[3], in which he rescued the world from a terrifying future, he and his team deserve a well-earned respite. So Gabriel retreats to the rented villa in Umbria, picking up the paint brush once again to continue his art restoration, and taking time to enjoy his wife, Chiara, an Italian woman of striking beauty. She is also a deadly agent for the same Israeli organization Gabriel works for, referred to as simply the Office. Their last harrowing assignment has them both thinking of retirement. Maybe they could settle in, start a family and try to capture a life that at least borders on normal.
Amid such pleasant dreams comes news that Russian defector Grigori Bulganov has vanished from his safe house in London. Grigori saved Gabriel’s life as they fled Russia together. There has been speculation that he returned to his homeland, but Gabriel cannot believe Grigori would go back—at least not voluntarily. That means that he has been snatched or coerced somehow.
The Office gives Gabriel strict orders to stay out of it, but Gabriel owes Grigori. Big time. If not for Grigori, Gabriel might never have been reunited with Chiara, and the world might be a very different place. As always, Gabriel plays by his own rules, following an intuition so keen it could be said he has a sixth sense. He starts with a simple plan, one that should yield maximum benefit for minimum risk.
Grigori’s disappearance starts to look like a form of revenge. He should have kept a low profile, but his craving for attention got the better of him. And he got attention, only not the kind of attention he wanted. Gabriel’s information points him toward Ivan Kharkov, a more than formidable foe. The big problem is that Kharkov is in Russia, and Russia is forbidden ground for Gabriel. Of course, that never stopped him before, nor will it now. It’s all a matter of time. But time is running out.
“Always the waiting…Waiting for a plane or a train. Waiting for a source. Waiting for the Sun to rise after a night of killing. And waiting for Ivan Kharkov…”
There is no question that Gabriel will go after him. But will he succeed? Kharkov is not your average bad guy. This fellow is rich, cunning, well connected, spiteful, malicious, plain nasty, and downright mean. And it’s no surprise that he doesn’t take well to being crossed. The tiniest slight sends him into a dangerous, sometimes fatal, rage. Gabriel may have to retire after this, if he survives. It’s touch and go. Last assignment? Daniel Silva’s fans hope not.
The Defector blends the worst of Russia’s past with the best of her future. Put your hopes on the women. And sidestep the politicians. Loyal citizens, particularly those with extraordinary abilities and tenacity, will get things done. Especially if they’re anything like Gabriel Allon. But beware; this may be his toughest case yet. It certainly is his most thrilling.
[1] Jerry Harkavy Associated Press, “Book Review: Daniel Silva’s ‘Defector’ is well-crafted thriller,” Billings Gazette (Aug 30, 2009), downloaded January 6, 2017
[2] Kate Ayers at Book Reporter, accessed December 3, 2017 at https://www.bookreporter.com/reviews/the-defector
[3] Silva, Daniel (2008). Moscow Rules. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Intelligence Fiction 