These have gotten better since the first in the series.
Dialog is more natural, action not too over the top.
I also really like the small subtle surprises that occur as the series progresses. ( )

I enjoyed this book a lot, which is normal for me and the Gabriel Allon series. I think that I may be getting tired of the series, though. It's somewhat of a similar formula for each one, where everything goes along well, then something goes wrong, Gabriel gets beat up or almost dies, but you always know he won't because there's more to the series.

Still, I enjoy the humor and excitement, so I'll keep reading them. ( )

Gabriel is on his honeymoon with Chiara in a remote part of Italy and restoring a painting for the Vatican when he is summoned by Ari Shammron to meet with a Russian journalist who wants to impart some vital information about a threat to himself, Israel, and the West. Two Russian journalist are killed trying to impart some vital information to Gabriel. Ivan Karkov is a wealthy Russian arms dealer selling and delivering arms to sub-Saharan Africa nations. One nation decides to resell arms to al-Qaeda and Gabriel sets out to stop Ivan and atone for the deaths of the journalists. ( )

Meh. This is an OK spy story. I wish books would indicate when the protagonist is a recurring character. There were many "call backs" to previous stories so sometimes I felt a bit lost, but that didn't really deter from the story.

Here, Israeli spy Gabriel Allon must determine what arms have been sold by Russian oligarch Ivan Kharkov and to whom. The Moscow setting is well done as is the primary characters. The end happened in the blink of an eye and somewhat unsatisfactorily. ( )

After journalist Aleksandr Viktorovich Lubin is assassinated by an agent of the siloviki, the former KGB men who now run Russia, Boris Ostrovsky, the editor in chief, of the Moskovsy Gazeta ...one of the country's last investigative weeklies and ...a persistent stone in the shoe of the Kremlin, contacts the Israeli embassy in Rome with a message and a request. "He said he had an important message to pass along regarding a grave threat to the security of the West and to the State of Israel," and he requsted to give that information only to Gabriel Allon. Before he can give the message to Allon, he is poisoned by the siloviki, and dies in Allon's arms in an enclave of St. Peter's Basilica, St. Peter's Square. Ari Shamron knows that Ostrovsky's information concerns an existenial threat to Israel and pulls Gabriel out of his honeymoon and away from his latest art restoration.
Allon travels to Moscow to meet with the new acting editor in chief, of the Moskovsy Gazeta, Olga Sukhova. While there he follows Moscow Rules, "Assume every room is bugged and every telephone call monitored. Assume every person you encounter is under opposition control. And don't look back. You are never completely alone." Although he follows the rules, Gabriel ends up being questioned and beaten in the notorious Lubyanka. He has, however, discovered that the source of Ostrovsky's information is the wife of the ruthless Russian oligarch and gun-runner, Ivan Borisovich Kharkov, Elena. Adrian Carter's NSA intercepts reveal that Elena covets art by Mary Cassatts and agrees to send Sarah Bancroft, now a CIA officer, to work with Allon.
The operation becomes one of the most complex and difficult of Allon's career.