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Daniel Silva

THE CONFESSOR Paperback – Import, January 1, 2004

by Daniel Silva (Author)

5,057 ratings

Book 3 of 22: Gabriel Allon

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A complex thriller of ancient and modern betrayal from the author of The English Assassin.

Language

English
Publisher

Michael Joseph /Penguin Books
Publication date

January 1, 2004
ISBN-10

0718147952
ISBN-13

978-0718147952
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Popular Highlights in this book

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Thomas Aquinas wrote of a cultivated ignorance, an ignorantia affectata. A willful lack of knowledge designed to protect one from the harm.
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The three most powerful men in the brotherhood: Brindisi, spiritual leader; Pucci, minister of finance; Casagrande, chief of security and operations. The members of the Institute privately referred to them as the Holy Trinity.
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In 1555, Pope Paul IV, a Pope whose name Lucchesi bore, ordered the Jews of Rome into the ghetto and compelled them to wear a yellow star to make them distinguishable from Christians.
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Gabriel Allon, Daniel Silva's protagonist in an interesting series about a Mossad spy who doubles as an art restorer, returns in a fascinating tale of Vatican complicity in the Holocaust. Author Silva, a political journalist turned espionage writer, has done his homework on some recently unearthed documents and written a fast-paced novel that will reawaken the discussion regarding whether the Catholic Church turned a blind eye to Nazi atrocities against Jews in occupied countries during World War II, and if so, why. Allon remains an enigmatic figure whose desire for revenge against the Leopard, the assassin who killed his wife and child, compels him to put down his paints and brushes and take arms against Israel's past and present enemies. The Confessor is a solidly plotted, well-crafted story that will appeal to fans of Allen Furst, John le Carré, and other standouts in the international espionage genre. --Jane Adams --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

"If you think Italians have a long memory, you should spend some time in the Middle East. We're the ones who invented the vendetta, not the Sicilians." So maintains Gabriel Allon, art restorer and Mossad hit man, star of Silva's second thriller series (The Mark of the Assassin, etc.). Gabriel is once again reluctantly dragged from his day job (he's working on a Bellini in Venice) by Israeli spymaster Ari Shamron, who heads a team of sleeper Mossad agents scattered all over the world. This time, it's a revenge mission: one of Shamron's agents (an academic working on an expos‚ about the Vatican's collaboration with the Nazis) has been assassinated. The gunman was working for a secret Vatican society known as Crux Vera. Composed of Roman Curia members and shady rich thugs, this shadow group intends to kill the latest pope to keep him from exposing the Vatican's secret archives. In order to find the gunman (known as "the Leopard," a reclusive European of independent means who hires out his deadly skills to the highest bidder), Gabriel must take up his slain colleague's research, something the Italian and German governments assuredly do not want him to do. Gabriel is hounded all across Europe as he tries to find out the truth about the Nazi collaborators, save the pope and get the Leopard. Silva draws on bizarre WWII secrets uncovered by historians like Susan Zuccotti (whom Silva credits) for his premise. Though the plot sticks close to Silva's well-honed formula, the provocative historical revelations will keep readers enthralled.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* This is the third spy thriller featuring Gabriel Allon, art restorer and reluctant Israeli agent, following The Kill Artist (2000) and The English Assassin [BKL Ja1 & 15 02], and it is utterly compelling reading. Former journalist Silva is a sophisticated writer with a lean, economical style and a gift for shaping riveting action scenes. In addition, his lead character, Allon, is, at once, fiercely intelligent and infinitely weary, seemingly reluctant to deploy his expert and deadly skills. This time out, Gabriel is asked to investigate the vicious murder of his friend Benjamin Stern, a onetime agent who was researching the role of the Vatican in the Holocaust for a book. Gabriel begins to suspect it is the work of a calculating mercenary known as the Leopard--but who was he working for? All the evidence points to Crux Vera, a secretive, moneyed group of Roman Catholics with ties to the highest levels of power within the Vatican. What's more, Gabriel is certain the pope himself is next on the hit list because of his willingness to throw open the secret archives, which document the extent of the Vatican's complicity with the Nazis. Silva's searing portrait of a church under siege by its own corrupt bureaucracy and corporate publicity machine is particularly resonant. An uncommonly intelligent thriller told with elegant precision. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Silva . . . loads new excitement into the word thriller." -- "Library Journal" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Daniel Silva is the bestselling author of The Unlikely Spy, The Mark of the Assassin, The Marching Season, The Kill Artist, The English Assassin, The Confessor, A Death in Vienna, Price of Fire, The Messenger, The Secret Servant,Moscow Rules and The Defector. He lives in Washington, DC, with his wife, NBC News Today correspondent Jamie Gangel, and their two children, Lily and Nicholas. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From AudioFile

Gabriel Allon is Daniel Silva's protagonist in his second installment about a Mossad spy who leads a double life as an art restorer. When Professor Benjamin Stern is assassinated, Allon is drawn into the fray in an attempt to find the assassin and, at the same time, uncover secrets from WWII long hidden by the Catholic Church. Arliss Howard produces a different voice for each person in an international cast of characters, making each one easily distinguishable. Howard reads Allon's parts with a voice that captures the spy's intensity and drive, while at the same time revealing his human traits. Silva's contribution to the espionage genre is matched well by Howard's portrayal of the characters, events, and drama. H.L.S. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Michael Joseph /Penguin Books (January 1, 2004)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0718147952
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0718147952
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.11 pounds

Customer Reviews:
5,057 ratings

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Daniel Silva

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Daniel Silva is the award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Unlikely Spy, The Mark of the Assassin, The Marching Season, The Kill Artist, The English Assassin, The Confessor, A Death in Vienna, Prince of Fire, The Messenger, The Secret Servant, Moscow Rules, The Defector, The Rembrandt Affair, Portrait of a Spy, The Fallen Angel, The English Girl, The Heist, and The English Spy. His books are published in more than thirty countries and are bestsellers around the world. He serves on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council and lives in Florida with his wife, CNN special correspondent Jamie Gangel, and their two children, Lily and Nicholas.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5

5,057 global ratings

5 star		72%
4 star		21%
3 star		4%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Daniel W Bearman

Delivered in great shape with great care

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 25, 2023

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Delivered in great shape with great care

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 15, 2022

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I started reading the Allon books at number 10 and have gone back the beginning. This book was one of the best yet n

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Pnina

A Riveting Historical Adventure

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 26, 2022

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This novel is a riveting historical adventure providing many facts and details regarding the complexities of the Roman Catholic Church, the impact of WWII on the Jewish community as well as on those who helped and might have helped to change the course of history. A deeply touching novel.

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David Island

Proof of Pope Collaboration with World War II Nazis Uncovered

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 7, 2009

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"The Confessor" is the 3rd in the Gabriel Allon series by Daniel Silva. This one may be the best, although I would hardly call it a "thriller." No, it is a savvy mixture of an international detective story with the added glamor of highly paid assassins doing their thing and the secret Nazi-loving branch of the Curia in Rome.

The pace is relaxed. This is not a criticism. Just know as you begin the book, that you will not stay up all night reading it. It will be easy to pick up on future days. I liked the pace actually. Yes, there are a couple of high-speed "chases" sprinkled here and there, some gory assassinations and murders, and a plot that builds tension nicely, but all-in-all it's a leisurely stroll through the sordid 1940's past history of the Church's ultimate collaboration during and protection of Nazis after World War II.

In a sense, this book represents an attempt at reconciliation between Jews and Catholics. I felt that theme was sensitively written and ultimately achieved. Were it so easy in the real world of hard core politics and long memories !! I thought it touching near the end that the "confessor" turned out to be the modern day fictional Pope confessing his "sins" to a Jew, the assassin, Gabriel.

Gabriel is no super-hero, but with Chiara, a rather well-drawn sexy accomplice, they make a deadly and intelligent sleuthing- and paid-assassin couple, seeking the truth about the Church's complicity with the Nazis and its modern day cover-up. Shamron, the Israeli brains behind the intelligence and decisions to kill adversaries, plays a nice role in this book, better than in the other two, I believe. He actually seems to have a real personality in this one and emerges as a real person. The fictional Pope is also clear-headed, likable and convincing, as is his chief side-kick Father Donati.

The bad guy, otherwise known as the Leopard or Eric Lange, is sufficiently evil and awful, but not without his human side either. His downfall seems to be an inflated self-concept and an eerie lack of self-protection.

The absolute best part of this book, as in so many similarly-themed others written in the last 10 years, is its unflinching criticism and condemnation of the Catholic Church -- not only for its obvious and well-known complicity with the Nazis in WWII, but for its other current inhumane policies and conduct. I know that "The Confessor" is fiction, but ............................. but, this fictional version of these specific events not only confirms long-known (or suspected) facts, but also reveals facts and truths without blinking an eyelash. Kudos to Silva.

I give Silva a 4 for this one. It kept my interest -- though it took me a couple weeks to finish it. It definitely is not a page-turner and nowhere near the classic terrorist thriller we've come to know and love over these recent years. But Silva is a good writer and his research seems excellent.

Well, so much for Silva. Now, on to a much better writer, Arturo Perez-Reverte, and his newest book which just arrived on my doorstep yesterday, "The Cavalier in the Yellow Doublet" (the latest in the Adventures of Captain Alatriste). While I like Silva, but I am an admirer of Perez-Reverte.

One person found this helpful

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RWM

What a tale!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 31, 2022

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Gabriel trying to find out who killed his childhood friend Benji and son of Ari Shamron turns into a page turning tale and that is putting it mildly. I know this is fiction but it does shed some negative light on the Vatican and their deeds during WW2 against the Jews who were horribly persecuted. What a good book!

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SYFer

Immerse yourself in this one...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 23, 2012

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I quite enjoyed this third installment of the Gabriel Allon series and look forward to diving into the next one on my list ( A Death in Vienna (Gabriel Allon, Bk 4) ). In fact, my enjoyment of the series is growing with each installment I read. The locations, characters and complexity of the plot are very satisfying and I find these to be first rate espionage thrillers.

Although I have frequently used resources like Google Maps to occasionally look up locations mentioned in novels, this was the first novel I read almost entirely on the new iPad and what a treat this was! Although I don't know if this was the case in the first couple of Silva's Allon novels, I found that all of the intriguing european locations mentioned in The Confessor" were quite legitimate--or at least the street was legitimate and usually specific enough that I could pick out what building must have inspired the author. In some cases, as with the apartment building mentioned in the first line of the novel, the actual building is there and, based on Silva's end notes, he gathered anecdotes about life in that very building from relatives who lived there.

This all makes reading on the iPad especially fun because you can click the Home button twice, switch to Google Maps, search the address or street from the novel and zoom right down to the street or park in question and "walk around" with Gabriel. It's an utterly immersive experience. And given Silva's obviously well researched and carefully chosen Swiss, French and Italian locations, this is a real treat. Silva tends to continuously provide very specific location information such that you can literally trace a car chase down a winding road and get a truly cinematic feel for the real-life location or directly observe the flavor of a shopping district in Cannes where the characters might stop.

It's almost like a whole new way of reading and I found Silva's book remarkably well suited to it. If you're really into the whole iPad-novel immersion thing, you can even stream the real Monaco radio station Silva mentions (using any radio streaming app) and hear the station Gabriel is hearing as you look at the scenery he would be seeing. It's a total blast and the seamlessness of the retina iPad experience elevates this kind of reading technique to the sublime.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 19, 2022

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I am very much into the story of Gabriel Allon. As a result I read a book then read 2-3 in relate d nove!s while savoring the last Sip a novel.

One person found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

A Pope's Confession

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 27, 2022

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This book is a great marriage of two masters; two deeply committed men to resolve memories deeply buried in the Roman archives and the memories of two ancient religions.

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Top reviews from other countries

Terry D

Gabriel Allon at his best. Well, almost...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 4, 2014

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In `The Confessor', the third of the Gabriel Allon thrillers, the election of a new Pontiff coincides with the appearance of various papers minuting meetings, during World War II, between officials of the Vatican and the Nazi Party. They clearly show the Vatican's silent complicity with the Nazi policy of Jewish extermination.

As the new Pontiff attempts a final reconciliation between the Catholic Church and Judaism the resistance to his policy within the Curia grows; a number of murders inevitably follow and, since one of them involves a close friend of Gabriel Allon, both Gabriel and Israeli intelligence find themselves drawn into the unfold maelstrom.

I have just one relatively minor criticism: the way Gabriel deals with an attempt on his life - his rather indiscriminate use of both a Beretta and sub-machine gun leaves four members of the Italian police dead and six wounded - reduced a five star rating to four.

In the earlier books I felt both Gabriel Allon and Ari Shamron were slightly unbelievable characters and in need of further development. In `The Confessor', perhaps helped by the final appearance of the beautiful Chiara Zolli, Daniel Silva has deftly resolved that particular issue and given us a genuinely gripping thriller.

Read and enjoy.

One person found this helpful

M

Neutral Element

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 31, 2013

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"The Confessor" is the third book of the Gabriel Allon series and in my opinion it's the best so far. However, I believe I would've enjoyed it more if I hadn't read "The English Assassin" before.

Someone is assassinated --> Shamron involves Gabriel in the murder case --> it becomes clear that the victim was killed to prevent him from revealing an organization's involvement in the Jewish holocaust during WW2 --> someone central in the plot is targeted by a notorious assassin --> the threat is solved, but not by Allon -- it fits like a glove for both "The English Assassin" and "The Confessor". Most of the characters may be different and they may be travelling to different cities, but I had a constant feeling that I'd read it before.

Also, once again Allon is irrelevant to the story climax, which is a bit irritating. Had he not been there and the outcome would be the same, which is something that also happened in the first two books.

However, it's a fun book to read because it keeps a very high pace, the Catholic Church behavior during WW2 is a captivating theme, and there are also some very tense moments, such as the Rome shootout and the synagogue speech.

+: pace, tension and subject; believable plot from start to finish

-: unoriginal storyline; once again Allon is a non-factor in the book climax

=: If I hadn't read "The English Assassin" before, I would rate it 4 out of 5; even so, "The Confessor" is a book that thriller fans will certainly enjoy

2 people found this helpful

yorkie kim

reliable as always

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 24, 2012

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I have enjoyed Daniel Silva since I first discovered him when someone left one of his books a t a holiday villa we stayed at. I do like his work but feel he's now appraoching his books with a "formula" type I look forward to reading some new angle as felt this was slightly "Dan Brown" though not sure who came first.....

Amazon Customer

Hard to put down!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 25, 2020

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An exciting read. Part of a trilogy so read all of them! Excellent.

Mr D M Gray

customer satisfied

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 26, 2021

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book was delivered in a timely manner and the product met the description, many thanks