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Review of The New Girl by Daniel Silva

tl;dr: The New Girl is a classic Daniel Silva story updated to reflect current events.


Introduction

The New Girl is 19th book in the Gabriel Allon series, by Daniel Silva.


In case you are new to it, Gabriel Allon (the protagonist) is an Israeli assassin who also happens to be one of the best artists/restorers in the world. During the course of the series, he suffers from heart break, finds new love and matches wits with the 'enemy' of the month. This series is definitely written with the Western audience in mind though Daniel Silva tries to portray at least some of the antagonists as human beings in their own right - be it Palestinians, The Iranians, The Saudis or the rest of the Arab world as well as Russians. If there is one country that is blasted throughout, it is the Swiss.


There is a bit of a formula that these books follow. Somebody usually approaches Allon with a problem, he gets a team together, they encounter setbacks, then more effort is put in, a minor deus ex machine occurs and most of the situation is resolved. The New Girl follows this formula to the T.


Opinion

The one thing that stands out though is while the starting of the book is similar to current events, the rest of the book follows its own timeline. Most of it is wishful thinking and I am ok with that.


What I didn't like is the constant demonisation of Putin and the Russians. Action writers really need to be a bit more self-aware and understand that all countries behave in their self-interest (more or less). I do get the appeal of having a black and white villain but, for once, I would like to see a story where shades of grey abound. The presence of an ongoing feud adds extra spice to this book as well as the earlier one.


The ending though is a proper cliff-hanger and I have to admit that I didn't see that one coming.


Conclusion

In conclusion, I really enjoyed 'The New Girl'. It is a fun and engrossing read. I never once felt like putting it down even if I could predict individual beats in the story,


I highly recommend this series and the book to action thriller fans.


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