The Cellist: A Novel

Daniel Silva

Jul 2021 · Gabriel Allon Book 21 · Sold by HarperCollins

About this ebook

#1 New York Times Bestseller

“The pace of “The Cellist” never slackens as its action volleys from Zurich to Tel Aviv to Paris and beyond. Mr. Silva tells his story with zest, wit and superb timing, and he engineers enough surprises to startle even the most attentive reader.“—Wall Street Journal

From Daniel Silva, the internationally acclaimed #1 New York Times bestselling author, comes a timely and explosive new thriller featuring art restorer and legendary spy Gabriel Allon.

Viktor Orlov had a longstanding appointment with death. Once Russia’s richest man, he now resides in splendid exile in London, where he has waged a tireless crusade against the authoritarian kleptocrats who have seized control of the Kremlin. His mansion in Chelsea’s exclusive Cheyne Walk is one of the most heavily protected private dwellings in London. Yet somehow, on a rainy summer evening, in the midst of a global pandemic, Russia’s vengeful president finally manages to cross Orlov’s name off his kill list.

Before him was the receiver from his landline telephone, a half-drunk glass of red wine, and a stack of documents.…

The documents are contaminated with a deadly nerve agent. The Metropolitan Police determine that they were delivered to Orlov’s home by one of his employees, a prominent investigative reporter from the anti-Kremlin Moskovskaya Gazeta. And when the reporter slips from London hours after the killing, MI6 concludes she is a Moscow Center assassin who has cunningly penetrated Orlov’s formidable defenses.

But Gabriel Allon, who owes his very life to Viktor Orlov, believes his friends in British intelligence are dangerously mistaken. His desperate search for the truth will take him from London to Amsterdam and eventually to Geneva, where a private intelligence service controlled by a childhood friend of the Russian president is using KGB-style “active measures” to undermine the West from within. Known as the Haydn Group, the unit is plotting an unspeakable act of violence that will plunge an already divided America into chaos and leave Russia unchallenged. Only Gabriel Allon, with the help of a brilliant young woman employed by the world’s dirtiest bank, can stop it.

Elegant and sophisticated, provocative and daring, The Cellist explores one of the preeminent threats facing the West today—the corrupting influence of dirty money wielded by a revanchist and reckless Russia. It is at once a novel of hope and a stark warning about the fragile state of democracy. And it proves once again why Daniel Silva is regarded as his generation’s finest writer of suspense and international intrigue.

Ratings and reviews

I've read this series from the beginning. Very engaging at first. But somewhere along the path, I started to realize that I had read some of these passages before in an earlier book. And then the plots started to feel overly simply, almost glib. I've stopped reading Silva's book. Loyal readers deserve better. Books and their characters should become more interesting and complex over time, not the opposite.

I realize Silva is married to a relatively unintelligent and uneducated CNN "analyst" but how he positively gushes over the current senile in chief combined with his hatred of the former occupant of the white house destroyed this book. This is a work of fiction but when an author includes elements of current events there is some obligation on the part of the author to cling to some portion of facts and reality. The Qanon conspiracy has nothing on the ludicrous nonsense Silva sloppily throws out here in the closing chapters of the book. I've been a long term fan of this series but this is so poorly done its likely to be my last foray into any of Silva's future works. If I was Silva I'd be ashamed to put my name to this garbage

In The Cellist, the plot formula begins to get a bit long in the tooth. Yet another impossibly attractive young women, incredibly successful in some worldly pursuit, encounters our favorite Israeli spy master and is turned into the femme fatale protecting western civilization. The story telling is still compelling, but it is beginning to get old. Finally, to top off the yawn, we are awakened by Silva's Trump hating, liberal spouting manifesto in a final chapter that comes out of nowhere, is contrived, and ought to come with a refund since we are forced to listen to his hateful, contrived political rant that has nothing to do with why someone might purchase this book. I would guess many of us read these books to escape from this kind of tripe. Anyway, in his afterward, Silva tells us he was somehow compelled to spend months rewriting the final chapter to get this personal crud of his off his chest. He should have saved his time and ours and left well enough alone. I love the Gabriel Allon series. I hope we can get back to the smart and intriguing plots that have brought us this far.

About the author

Daniel Silva is the award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Unlikely Spy, The Mark of the Assassin, The Marching Season, The Kill Artist, The English Assassin, The Confessor, A Death in Vienna, Prince of Fire, The Messenger, The Secret Servant, Moscow Rules, The Defector, The Rembrandt Affair, Portrait of a Spy, The Fallen Angel, The English Girl, The Heist, The English Spy, The Black Widow, House of Spies, The Other Woman, The New Girl, The Order, The Collector, and A Death in Cornwall. He is best known for his long-running thriller series starring spy and art restorer Gabriel Allon. Silva’s books are critically acclaimed bestsellers around the world and have been translated into more than thirty languages.