Showing posts with label Daniel Silva. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Daniel Silva. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 9, 2020

The New Girl : Daniel Silva : Book Review

Name of Novel: The New Girl 
Name of Writer: Daniel Silva
Publisher : Harpercollins Publishers
Price of Book : 399/- MRP
Number of Pages: 478
ISBN: 978-0-00-833639-4
Year of Publishing:2019
Amazon Link :The New Girl By Daniel Silva

 'A world-class practitioner of spy fiction.' ( Washington Post)



Daniel Silva
Daniel Silva



Daniel Silva is one of the best selling authors and number one New York Times best selling author who first marked his impression in 1997 with his novel The Unlikely Spy. From 2001, he started a new series with his novel The Kill Artist. This series is Gabriel Allon Series . The New Girl is the 19th novel of this series and the latest of the series. This novel is sub-divided into five parts-- Abduction, Abdication, Absolution, Assassination and Vengeance.

                                  What's done cannot be undone.---- Macbeth

Abduction......The New Girl is the latest offering of Daniel Silva which involves Gabriel Allon, who is an artistic curator and chief of Israeli investigating agency. The novel start with the introduction of  a mysterious girl twelve year old girl Jihan Tantawi in International School of Geneva. His father is Adnan Tantawi is mysterious billionaire who supposed to own half of the Cairo. But despite all of concealment and secrecy this girl Jihan got kidnapped. This event lead to a multinational saga of deceit and conflict between different international investigating agency. In this part, three main protagonists are introduced. Sarah Bancroft and Gabriel Allon are main characters and a mystery unfolds as Girl who is kidnaped is Reema who is Daughter of none other than KBM i.e. Crowned Prince of Saudi Arab Khalid bin Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. After that Daniel Silva weaves a plot which have various angles of Middle East politics, Brexit and assassination of a International Correspondent Omar Nawwaf. After meeting KBM where Sarah plays an important role to arrange a meeting, Gabriel entangles himself into a multinational and multi layered plot.

Abdication....... is the part two. Here the plot of novel thickens and pick up its race. As the heading of the part indicates that what is going to happen in the life of crowned prince Khalid bin Mohammed. His detractors plan was beyond the imagination of Gabriel but KBM pays a price of his policies and end of this section is quiet sensational and unpredictable.

Absolution ...... is third part where story takes a new leap after abdication which involves intelligence agencies of Britain, France, Russia and Gabriel Allon of Israel. This is intricately woven segment which have moves and countermoves of hawks of their field. This chapter introduces Hanifa Khoury, wife of slained reporter Ommar, Rebecca Bettencourt and a lot of others.. here a plan is laid and that is assassination. 

Assassination ..... is fourth segment which I can say is highly engrossing for readers at least true for me. A mission which is plotted to checkmate Gabriel Allon but he is a master of his own field . Here, I prefer not to elaborate this segment further.

Vengeance ..... is the final part of novel where Gabriel Allon is in full command of events which ultimately expose the men behind the whole mission. Here the title new girl is justified but it is not for Reema, the daughter of KBM.

First of all, I must confess that The New Girl is first novel of Daniel Silva which I Happened to read and it is latest of Gabriel Allon series. Why I am saying this ? Because it was difficult for a new reader to get hooked to story as some characters like Sarah, Mikhail, Rousseau etc are in continuity. So, it took some time get engaged in this story but if you stick to go through the first part then events get you involved and you do not feel an outsider. As Daniel Silva is a international best seller but story build up seems to un event full after the kidnap of Reema. About more than hundred pages are used just to describe the movement of its characters from one place to another place where it is very difficult to stay focussed by reader.

My View:

 In my view, Daniel Silva has delivered a complete package which may be lethargic in beginning but  in the end you feel satisfied and do not regret of this book. If you are ardent fan of him, then definitely you may enjoy more as you stay with plot.


The New Girl is complete in its term but Daniel Silva has left the ending somewhat open. As he has announced his new novel "The Order" which is going to be released in mid of July.

My Rating: ★★★★/★★★★★

the new girl Daniel Silva
The New Girl




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