"The Fallen Angel", by Daniel Silva

Book 12, in the Gabriel Allon series
Mr. Silva has to be one of the finest writers of international intrigue we have these days. His Gabriel Allon series features one of the most memorable and compelling character in contemporary fiction. His adventures have stayed fresh and exciting making each novel more successful than the previous.

With lots of action and interesting political points of view “The Fallen Angel” starts in a classic Gabriel way. He is found back in action taking refuge behind the walls of the Vatican restoring one of Caravaggio’s masterpieces. It opens with a murder in St. Peter’s Basilica and soon the story weaves different topics: art, politics, religions, etc. and also current issues such as the Vatican bank scandals and the threat of nuclear attacks. His investigation takes us on a journey around Europe and Israel. It is clear in the description that Mr. Silva loves the topic of terrorism and is passionate about the Middle East politics and strategy. This thriller provides an exciting plot and a page-turning story hard to put down. Although this is an excellent read it has flaws and this lie in the intensive and relentless attention to details. At the end of the book Mr. Silva highlights where fiction starts and reality falls, a much appreciated note.

"The Golden Egg", by Donna Leon

Book 22, in the Commissario Brunetti series

First I admit being a huge fan of this series but after reading this latest I am really not sure what to make out of it. “The Golden Egg” unfolds in such a languorous manner and keeps the same slow pace throughout I felt I had taken a sleeping pill and waiting for the knockout (ouch). IMO it is too quiet with very little drama, definitely not MS. Leon’s standard, it seemed as if the penmanship may have come from a different stroke…..or strongly influenced by the works of the Queen of Crime….very predictable, always the same old beat….

This detective story centers on the life and death of a young man who was never heard to speak and never existed, a man with no identity. As Brunetti tries to find out the basics about him, he takes to the streets and canals of Venice for answers. He probes various people and faces the political mire and hopeless Italian bureaucracy along the way. His sharp-tongued wife Paula and the children play a prominent part that provides a bit of flavour to this mystery.

This series has never been action packed but this one is more ponderous than many of the previous novels. Brunetti is a thoughtful man, not given to hasty decisions or dramatic gestures and his language is overly correct…..he is definitely not the typical detective found these days. 

After 22 books it may be time to put Guido Brunetti and Paulo and the rest of the cast to pasture.

"Contrived", by Jay Deb

This is an interesting storyline, a good debut novel that needed some fine tuning. 

Storyline taken from Goodreads:

When Tyler, a Wall Street fund manager, comes to Dallas to attend his father's birthday party finds his father murdered and a family member is the prime suspect, a series of murders and an intriguing story follows as Tyler goes on a crusade to find the killer as he loses his job, girlfriend and comes close to kissing his own death.

My take:

With a little bit of editing to eliminate the errors such as typos, fragmented sentences, missing words and repeated ones the flow of the saga would have been better, mistakes are always distracting for a reader. This aside the novel has good qualities. “Contrived” is a captivating read, a good storyline that grabbed interest from the start and can sustained it to the last page, I admit  energetically tapping my reader for the next page. IMO, the characters were correctly portrayed to represent who they were, although I felt no empathy for any of them and dislike most of themJ. I wouldn’t say it is dialogue driven but there are a lot of voices to keep track of. In all we have a great beginning and I would say Mr. Deb has definitely a talent with words, good job.