Ransom, Daniel Silva, author; Edoardo Ballerini, narrator
When four old friends travel to their reunion, they get far more than they bargained for; Phoebe Chadwick, Ella Burns, Sophie Maxwell and Alice Winter have been meeting yearly since their days at Cambridge. Although their lives have diverged in different directions, it has been a consistent part of their lives. Alice is married to a very wealthy British man, Edward Knight, and she has decided to foot the entire bill for their latest trip. Because she was not happy with Phoebe’s choice of Iceland for their gathering, she has chosen a beautiful mansion on the island of Ibiza for all of them. It just happens to be owned by her husband. Phoebe feels put out by Alice’s apparent arrogance. Phoebe is the least financially successful of the group, and she resents Alice’s behavior and assumption of command. They have an angry row that sends Phoebe home earlier than planned.
Alice never returns home from their reunion. The two remaining female friends did not report her missing immediately, because Alice was a little unpredictable. When she does not reappear, however, it is assumed that she had been robbed, kidnapped, and/or has perhaps been murdered. One of the friends notified Phoebe about her disappearance. Phoebe worked for a non-profit that had recently received a huge bequest, and so she was now cast under a cloud of suspicion.
Because of his notoriety, Alice’s husband, Edward, thought it was best to keep the investigation of her disappearance quiet. He wanted a private investigator to protect his and Alice’s identity. Gabriel Allon, the former chief of Israeli security, now a renowned art restorer, was a guest at an art world fundraiser at the Knight home on the very night Edward was notified of Alice’s disappearance. Edward approached Allon and asked him to search for her without attracting any undue attention or publicity. Gabriel was there at the behest of his friend Julian Isherwood. He had also been engaged to restore a Bernardo Bellotto painting. At first, he refused to take on the assignment for Edward; he was no longer an investigator. When Edward purchased the Bellotto painting for an outrageous sum, to convince Allon to help him, the deal was made.
The search for Alice exposes a scandalous crime involving traitors and espionage, the financial world and oligarchs, danger and violence. It will involve many countries and leaders, some of whom will sound very familiar, and those that don’t sound familiar will surely resemble someone or another that is in a high position in a country, government, or security organization that you might recognize. The investigation and search for the missing Alice Winter, who is also a prominent influencer, as well as the wealthy wife of an important man, will take Gabriel and those he calls upon to assist him to several places in the world; among them will be cities in Greece, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and Great Britain.
Although the incidents in the novel are largely fictional, the times, some of the leaders. the places and the politics will not seem so. We are living in dangerous times. The subtle below the belt comments about the United States and its leader surprised me, but I guess it was pretty much to be expected when the novel is placed in the venue of world events today, especially with the Ukraine war and the Middle East tension. In this novel, Russia has resorted to its usual modus operandi of clandestine spying that it continues to deny, and to the use of drones, both miniscule and larger in size, that in addition to poisons and other weapons, have become another source for our enemies to deliver chaos, death and destruction. Drone and deadly injectables are very much in evidence in our current day political and controversial environment, especially as countries vie for dominance and power.
Allon will face great danger as he is joined by familiar characters, like Ingrid Johansen who can make things disappear in a flash, and Phillip Marlowe, aka Christopher Keller, who pollutes the air around him with his apparent inability to give up his smoking habit. Others also appear and the dialogue they share, conversational and witty, will sound like old friends. The banter between the characters, as usual, makes this a really delightful, as well as a thrilling read. There is lots of action as Sarah Bancroft, Christopher Keller, Chiarra Zolli, Detective Inspector Peel, the twins, Irene and Raphael, etc., reconnect with the readers to make this a friendly reunion for them as well. When the safe house and its staff is introduced, once again, the reader will feel right at home with Parish and Miss Coventry and their British ways. I truly hate when one of these books ends, because the next one is always too far off. The wait feels interminable.