The New Girl

It's been a while since I've read a spy novel, it was nice. A bit rough, but very page-turner. I know it's part of a long serie, and it shows, but at the same time I didn't feel lost. I won't say no to another Gabriel Allon someday.

Liked it

An OK read, interesting plot. Emotionally not very rewarding, though. Precious little emotional development. Typical male action-writing ;-)

I was quite skeptical about reading this book because of its storyline and the real life person on whom it is based. But I'm also a huge fan of the series, so I decided to give it a try. I was very glad to read the author's clarification in the foreword and that surely made me a little excited to read.

While this was a very fast paced read and I finished it in just a few hours, I won't say this is one of his finer stories. It was quite engaging even if not realistic for almost the first half, but the latter half which features the main operation spearheaded by Gabriel was too unbelievable for even an entertaining spy thriller. I also hated that the “character” whom I don't want to talk about was almost getting a redemption arc (because reality is much darker and messy). So I was prepared to end the book on a disappointing note but I did not see the last line coming. I don't think I've ever waited for a next book so much before, but I just want to know what the hell happened.

I guess I just don't have much to say about this book. If you've read the previous 18 books of Gabriel's adventures, then you shouldn't give this a miss. It doesn't really work well as a stand-alone for new readers though - you definitely need to know the events that occur in the previous installment The Other Woman to understand this book better. I'm also not really convinced that the use of major horrifying events from around the world worked for the plot of this novel. I know I'll be continuing the series but I won't ever be revisiting this one.