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 enlarge | Author: Daniel Silva
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
Buy Used: $7.50
You Save: $19.45 (72%)
New (65) Used (76) Collectible (15) from $7.50
Rating:  102 reviews
Sales Rank: 4800
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 433
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 1.7
ISBN: 0399155015
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780399155017
ASIN: 0399155015
Publication Date: July 22, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 The Drug Dealers July 28, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I have been reading Daniel Silva novels for a couple years. I have even gone back and read many of the predecessors of "A Secret Servant"(which I believe is superior to this one). Silva has revitalized the spy-thriller genre that had fallen stagnant when the communinist eastern block fell(largely due to Ronald Reagan).
Ironically, Silva has detailed how Russia has gone full circle as a new and potentially more deadly adversary with a pseudo-democracy run by a calculating "tzar" with delusions of global granduer.
The Russian mobs that are now selling these weapons(with the approval through indifference of the Russian government) are the metaphoric global drug dealers. Except their clients are violent psychotic zealots that are addicted to western death and destruction.
Most of us do not understand the comprehensive global threat that Daniel Silva's bad guys pose. My favorite thought from this novel is from serialized protagonist Gabriel Allon, "He envied those innocent souls who could go out in public deprived of a vital sense". Succinct poetry.
Silva scares the pants off you even as he entertains. July 28, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
A shadowy figure moves into a private Tuscan villa, his length of stay unknown. The staff has orders to cater to all of his needs, but by no means should they attempt to engage him in social contact. He arrives under the cloak of night, alone. His instructions are to remove all the furniture from the study and stay out of his private rooms. No cook will be necessary. It is weeks before he drives back out of the front gates. By then, a woman has joined him, causing a stir of speculation among the maids and groundskeepers.
"Do the staff really have no idea who you are?"
"They think I'm an eccentric restorer who suffers from melancholia and mood swings."
"It sounds to me as if they know you quite well."
Agent Gabriel Allon has come to this secluded estate to recover from a near-fatal experience involving terrorists in Paris. He resumes his cover role as Mario Delvecchio, skilled art restorer. Chiara, his wife of only a few months, is the woman who has joined him in Tuscany. The newlyweds try to enjoy a peaceful honeymoon, all too aware that the Agency may intrude at any time, despite promises that they won't.
As they feared, a visitor arrives one day, and both Gabriel and Chiara know it is not a social call. The man carries a simple request, however. The Agency just needs Gabriel to make a quick trip to Rome, a mere two hours away, to meet with a Russian journalist who insists he will speak to no one but Gabriel. He asked for him by name. Chiara, an agent herself, has an intuition that the errand will not be so simple. Gabriel assures her and their visitor that he will arrange a meeting at the Vatican --- a rendezvous point he considers safe, with good visibility and friendly allies --- and return to the villa in a short time. His assurances comfort neither one of them.
"...I doubt that your friend His Holiness will be pleased if he ever finds out you used his church for a clandestine meeting."
"It's a basilica...and His Holiness will never know a thing."
"Unless something goes wrong."
"It's my honeymoon. What could go wrong?"
Famous last words. If it had been so simple, the story would have been far different. As it is, the simple errand takes a sudden downturn. Once the plan has gone awry, Gabriel has to devise a new one, which turns out to be very intricate and, of course, extremely risky. But any covert operation on Russian soil is certain to be extremely risky.
Recent decades have seen an emergence of billionaires rising from the ashes of old Russia. Many of the privileged few flock to the beaches of southern France, vacationing in the warmth of the St. Tropez sun while the masses at home in Moscow are wiping icicles from their noses. One ruthless man to emerge with embarrassing riches is Ivan Kharkov, who enjoys his power and flaunts his success, which he buttresses with just about any kind of illegal activity as long as it's profitable. He has no scruples about selling banned weapons to hostile buyers, if they have the money.
The messenger at the Vatican meeting would have told Gabriel all he needed to know to intercept an upcoming sale, a sale of terrifying proportions to a group with sinister intentions. He would have, that is, if he had lived. Gabriel has learned just enough to realize that he must find out more. His digging leads him to Karkhov's doorstep. Someone inside is trying to get the word out, but the Russian's security is maddeningly tight. By the time Gabriel tracks down the source of Karkhov's leak, it may be too late. But he has to try.
This eighth installment in Daniel Silva's bestselling series is a superb and seamless follow-up to THE SECRET SERVANT, and the best yet. Not so far from the realm of possibility --- maybe even probability --- MOSCOW RULES rockets Silva to the top of the charts once again. Gabriel Allon is a remarkable hero, seeing more action in Silva's pages than Indiana Jones saw in the Temple of Doom. His chilling depiction reads like a novel, but could be our future. A very terrifying future. Silva scares the pants off you even as he entertains.
--- Reviewed by Kate Ayers
 Good, but not as good as his best July 28, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
"Moscow Rules" is the latest outing for Silva's signature character, Gabriel Allon. Allon does "special" work for Israeli intelligence - and you can readily understand what special means in this context. Recruited to hunt down the 1972 Munich Massacre killers, Allon is in his fifties now. His cover is as a renowned art restorer.
He and his new wife are honeymooning at an Italian manor, where Allon is restoring a masterpiece for the Vatican. Allon's first wife and their son were killed by terrorists. A high-level Israeli intelligence operative shows up and asks Allon to undertake a seemingly simple task: meet in Rome with a Russian journalist who claims to have secret information that he will convey only to Allon.
Allon and the Russian journalist are to meet in the Vatican. Silva's detailed description of the precautions taken to make sure they are not being followed is, as always, riveting, the true stuff of thrillers. But the measures aren't good enough: the journalist is murdered in the Chapel of the Pieta.
Now begins the hunt. Allon, Israeli and American intelligence have picked up hints of new terror attacks being planned that will be more devestating than anything to date, but hints are all they have.
Despite his new wife's misgivings, Allon is off to Russia to see what he can learn from a colleague of the murdered journalist. It is at this point that Silva's plot starts to unravel at the edges.
"Moscow Rules" isn't a bad book by any measure. It just isn't as compelling as some other Silva novels. Many of the situations Allon finds himself in and his almost miraculous escapes from Russian bad guy Ivan Kharkov strain credulity.Allon simply isn't believable in "Moscow Rules", which isn't the case in the earlier books in the series.
Even so, "Moscow Rules" is a good thriller. The main problem is the Silva has raised expectations so high with his earlier work that anything less than his normal perfection is jarring.
Jerry
Gabriel Bond's left hand July 28, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
In the early Gabriel Allon novels, the hero was a real person. He had self-doubt and he made mistakes. You suffered with and for him. Somewhere after The Prince of Fire, Silva began to morph Allon into a super-hero, and in this novel he arrives - complete with building-leaping strength and bullet-proof skin. All of the other characters in the book exist to admire Allon. None can truly co-exist with him, as they are mortal, but they provide what small services they can. Only the great Ari Shamron also casts a shadow.
OK, that's the bad news. But it really isn't that bad unless you insist on real people for your action heroes. And this book is fine unless you compare it to The Prince of Fire or A Death in Vienna. Yes, Allon now walks on water - rules are made for other people, the people who will have to pick up the glorious pieces - but maybe that's what a post-9/11 hero has to do.
The baddies in this story are Russians, which makes a nice break from all the evil Arabs of the last few books. The plot is excellent for most of the novel, lots of ripped-from-the-headlines references to truly heroic journalists and current Russian politics. The central character of Elena might need some more back-story to make her virtue entirely believable, but since we want to believe, it will suffice. Silva has done a daunting amount of research, and it adds texture and substance to the action. The allusion to the Smiley novels is sustained to the end, adding a layer of spy history to the real history. The anti-American rhetoric is almost entirely missing, and the Brits don't get as much scorn as usual, since the French are around to fill the gap. We get the obligatory visit to the Vatican (this is becoming formulaic) and a couple of all-too-brief interludes of art, but the plot doesn't take any leisurely detours (I like leisurely detours) and, other than Eli, we hear nothing from Allon's tactical team but their names.
For a summer action read, this is excellent. The early Silva novels are beyond excellent, but I'm going to quit making that comparison and just take things as they appear: "generic" isn't inherently pejorative. This thriller will leave you shaken, if not stirred.
Wonderful spy thriller July 28, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I loved Moscow Rules. It is by far the best book I have read this year. Moscow Rules is my favorite of the Gabriel Allon novels. The characters are wonderful. Reading this novel, I felt like I was catching up with old friends. The plot moves at a fast pace with never a dull or wasted moment. I can't wait an entire year for another journey into this mysterious, dangerous, sexy world Mr. Silva has created.
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