I was two chapters into Daniel Silva’s latest Gabriel Allon mystery when I was seized with an overwhelming urge to pack my bags and hop the next flight to Venice, especially now that the Bezos-Sanchez horror show has departed. An Inside Job is Silva’s 26th featuring the Israeli spy and assassin (he once was an agent and then the head of Mossad), who is also a well known art conservator.
After the death of his first wife, Leah, and son, Dani, in a car bomb, Gabriel married Chiara, daughter of Venice’s chief rabbi, and they have twins, Raphael and Irene. Chiara now manages The Tiepolo Restoration Company, through which museums and private clients are able to engage Gabriel’s much in demand talents to restore priceless artworks. When An Inside Job opens, Gabriel is juggling two commissions, restoring Titian’s “The Descent of the Holy Spirit” in Santa Maria della Salute, and a canvas by Sebastiano Florigerio, a pro bono favor for the director of the Courtauld Gallery in London.
The Allon family lives in a palazzo overlooking the Grand Canal. Dinner in the Allon household could put many Italian restaurants to shame. When Gabriel requests a vegetarian meal, Chiara prepares an assortment of antipasti and risotto all Milanese, rice prepared with saffron. But the couple often dines at out of the way trattorias. After I read a scene where Gabriel meets a source at Venice’s famed Harry’s Bar, I asked my husband why we never had drinks there. “It’s a tourist trap,” he replied. Not for Gabriel who enjoyed two Bellinis there while plotting his strategy.
Gabriel’s next move has him in Rome, and not just Rome, but at the Vatican to meet his good friend, Luigi Donati, aka the Holy Father. Although Italian, the pope’s politics and manner resemble those of our new pontiff, Pope Leo XIV. The fictional pope dons a sports coat and chinos to dine with Gabriel in a small Italian restaurant where they are, of course, the only guests. (Would Leo do that? Easy to imagine.) Gabriel passes on the entree the pope suggests – tripe, entrails prepared with tomato sauce and garlic – but the meal they are served has my mouth watering. The meal begins with a plate of fried artichokes and zucchini flowers, followed by crostini and cured meats. The pasta course is spaghetti carbonara for the pope, and tagliatelle with mushrooms for Gabriel.
After reading more chapters set in the Vatican, I’m envisioning traveling there after Venice. As a famous art restorer, Gabriel has access to places tourists never see. Silva whets our appetite for a special tour where we might follow in Gabriel’s footsteps. If not, we would still enjoy, really enjoy, seeing the Sistine Chapel and all the priceless artwork in the Vatican museum.
Italy isn’t the only country that Gabriel’s travels to in the pages of An Inside Job. He follows a trail that takes him to Amsterdam, London, Denmark, Switzerland, and Paris. Hmm. Never been to Denmark, but the places Silva describes are calling to me.
Oh, I suppose I should give a rundown of the plot without revealing any surprises. On what seems to be a typical afternoon, Gabriel stops for a coffee and a cornetto filled with sweet almond paste. Approached by two tourists (American newlyweds), he takes a photo with the magnificent church of San Giorgio Maggiore in the background. He sees a large dark mass floating in the water near the man’s shoulder. He boards a water taxi and, over the objections of the driver, borrows a large hook and pulls up the body of a young woman.
As many readers know, Gabriel is a keen observer from his days as a spy and recalls that he saw that same woman sitting in a cafe next to him and his children. She looked like she was waiting for someone. After viewing the cafe’s CCTV images, Gabriel learns that the dead woman had been waiting for Amelia March, a writer from ARTnews magazine. Rather than giving the information to the Venetian police, he boards a plane to London. Meeting with Amelia, he learns that the dead woman said in an email she had made a startling artistic discovery and wanted to meet in person. She never identified herself, but after Gabriel meets with Dr. Geoffrey Holland at the Courtauld Gallery, he learns the young woman, Penelope Radcliffe, was a graduate student in conservation, specializing in the Florentine School. Her current place of employment? The Vatican.
Although just starting out in her profession, Radcliff was considered a superstar. When she was assigned to clean a painting, she found another painting underneath that she was convinced is a Leonardo. But when Gabriel asks to see the painting – surprise! – it’s been stolen. And not just by a casual thief, but by Italy’s feared crime organization, the Camorra. Rather than be deterred, Gabriel is energized by the challenge of stealing the painting back from the notorious killing machine.
But the quest for the valuable painting is just the beginning. Soon, Gabriel has unearthed a financial scandal that could damage his friend’s papacy. Gabriel is not Catholic, but he believes in Luigi, as so many of us believe in Leo, that “in a world gone mad, someone needs to speak for the poorest among us. Someone has to tell those who call themselves Christians that they are behaving in ways that Jesus himself wouldn’t recognize.” Amen to that.
I’ll stop there. To reveal any more of Silva’s irresistible and intricate plot would take away from the experience of enjoying this newest Allon adventure. If you won’t be able to take a European excursion to follow in the exploits and several near death moments in the life of this spy-artist, you will live vicariously and certainly will have the option of dining out in one of New York’s Italian restaurants that mimic, maybe, the one Gabriel enjoyed with the pope. But if you are traveling, then pack Silva’s book. And don’t listen to my husband. When in Venice, stop at Harry’s Bar and have a Bellini or two while toasting Italy’s most romantic city.
An Inside Job
Daniel SIlva
Top Bigstock Photo: Venetian lamppost gondolas on Grand Canal and San Giorgio Maggiore Church in Venice, Italy.
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