MOSCOW RULES
Daniel Silva
Signet
Thriller
Hardcover: 9780399155017
Paperback: 9780451227386

• Read an Excerpt
• Author Talk –– July 25, 2008

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

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