Amazon.com: Customer reviews: The Confessor (Gabriel Allon Book 3)

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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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T.A. G. Jr.

Repetitious

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 10, 2021

First, I did't realize this was an abridgement. I might have enjoyed it more hearing the entire book. Second, this is a theme that runs throughout Mr. Silva's books. I would place this one somewhere in the middle, but the "murder the pope" is a plot line, granted, with a twist. I have read all of Mr. Silva's Gabriel Allon pieces and will continue to do so, but this one was sort of "meh".

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From the United States

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

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Sidney Geller

the best yet

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.

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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.

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J.G. Jones

The third of 18.

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.

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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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Manuel Gwiazda

Strong plotting, poor background research

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 10, 2004

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By the way he writes, Mr Silva is following the footsteps of acclaimed international top notch thriller writers like (i.e) Federick Forsyth.
The Confessor exhibits a polished prose, good plotting, satisfactory outline of characters, and employment of resources to grab the reader attention
The core of this story is the willingness of the new elected Pope Paul the VII to release secluded key information and documents to prove the Church silence and Vatican-Nazi links during the Holocaust of the Jews at the time of the Second World War.
The new Pope also wants to follow a policy intended to foster better relationship with the Jews and the first step of his project is to go and visit the Great Synagogue of Rome on the other side of the city, however his efforts will be confronted by the conspiracy of an influential inside Catholic sect called "Crux Vera" adamant to maintain the status quo so as not to undermine the world political power of the Church, the reader is then presented with two antagonist factions from beginning to end
To carry out his idea, Silva resorts to alluring elements typical of this type of novels, the Israeli Spy Agency Mossad, the evil maneuvers of the Priests of the Vatican Curia, first class murderers and terrorists for hire, etc
And here comes the weak point (the missing star), if you dare to include in a novel powerful spy features like the Vatican and the Mossad that means you are playing heavyweight, and the only way to exploit them efficiently is long serious background research, something I have never noticed
Lack of research is manifest since most chapters are short when the first half of them should have been devoted to detail the exploits of the research and the last half to tell related actions and events or even they could be mixed up, that would have rendered a longer fruitful captivating story
If Mr Silva makes the big effort to include more enlightening research in his work, he will become a top international thriller, good research is his missing link up to date

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Spine-Tingling Thriller! Daniel Silva's Best To Date!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 25, 2003

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Daniel Silva brings back his enigmatic hero, Gabriel Allon, in "The Confessor," to investigate the mysterious murder of a dear friend, the unpopular aspirations of a newly elected Pope, a secret society in the Vatican, and long hidden secrets from World War II. Allon, is a brilliant Israeli art restorer and a complex, melancholy man. He had worked for many years as an Israeli intelligence agent, and assassin, (when necessary), losing his young son and wife to violence as a consequence of his work. Now he just wants to restore paintings and be left alone with his grief and his guilt.
Allon's boyhood friend and associate, Benjamin Stern, is murdered in his Munich apartment while writing a secret expose on Pope Pius XII and the Church's involvement in the Holocaust. Ari Shamron, Gabriel's old mentor, former head of Israeli intelligence, and the father of Ben Stern, finds Allon in Venice, restoring a Bellini altarpiece. He has little difficulty persuading Allon to accept this assignment to find Stern's killer, even though it means leaving the Bellini, at least temporarily.
Although Allon runs into a stone wall with his investigation in Munich, he begins to discover clues to the secrets of his friend's manuscript. Apparently Stern had been writing about material from top secret Vatican archives that proves Pope Pius XII, and the Church, were directly involved with the Nazis in the implementation of the Holocaust. Evidence also points to a deadly secret Vatican society, the Crux Vera.
Pope Paul VII, known by his Vatican detractors as "Pope Accidental," has recently been elected to the Papal Throne. He has pledged to review the Church's alleged complicity in the Nazi extermination of the Jews, and make available the Secret Vatican Archives regarding the Holocaust - archives that certain Vatican officials would do anything to keep suppressed. Allon's life, and the Pope's, are in terrible jeopardy.
Whatever your opinion on these controversial issues, Daniel Silva has written his best novel with this mesmerizing tale of Vatican politics, intrigue, murder and World War II history. Mr. Silva's style is reminiscent, but not derivative, of Ken Follett, Frederick Forsyth and John LeCarre. He is definitely in their league and oh, so original, with his 21st century relevant storyline. I have waited for a long time for an author of this caliber to appear and keep me on the edge of my seat, reading through the night. I was unable to put this book down.

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