A Death in Vienna

SUMMARY: Gabriel Allon hasn't been back to Vienna since his wife and child died there in a terrorist bombing. But when his mentor in the Israeli intelligence agency dispatches him to the Austrian capitol to investigate a murderous explosion at the Wartime Claims and Inquiry Office, his presence alerts the attention of police officials who have reasons to stand in the way of his investigation. When a concentration camp survivor is killed who could link the father of Austria's next chancellor to Nazi atrocities and an ongoing coverup by the Catholic Church, Allon discovers another connection to the conspiracy, this one closer to his own past than he could ever have imagined. This is the third of Silva's thrillers featuring Allon, the art restorer who's also a spy (The Confessor and The English Assassin are the first two). In an endnote, the author calls them a "completed cycle dealing with the unfinished business of the Holocaust." Allon is such a compelling hero that one hopes Silva, a skilled craftsman and a terrific story-teller, will bring him back in another series. --Jane Adams Mystery,Fiction - Espionage,Fiction,Suspense,Espionage,Thrillers,General,Intrigue,Thriller Art restorer and former secret agent Gabriel Allon hasn't been back to Vienna since a terrorist bomb tore his family apart. But when an old friend is almost killed there, in an explosion at the Wartime Claims and Inquiry Office, Allon is compelled to investigate. From the moment he arrives in Vienna, however, it's clear that people are hampering his search for the truth. And when a Holocaust survivor who could link a senior politician to Nazi atrocities is killed, Allon realises that he's already too deep into a conspiracy - one that goes right to the heart of his own family. Soon, Allon must decide between revenge and justice . . . Art restorer and sometime spy Gabriel Allon is sent to Vienna to investigate a bombing and uncovers a portrait of evil stretching across sixty years and thousands of lives-and into his own personal nightmares Hero Gabriel Allon is a restorer of paintings and frescoes and also a reluctant member of Israeli intelligence. Action and suspense abound in this serious fiction with a serious purpose