BOOK REVIEW: An Inside Job
By Daniel Silva / Harper
Reviewed by: Anne and Jay Gruner
The Reviewers — Anne and Jay Gruner were career CIA officers in analysis and operations, respectively. Anne, former Deputy Director of WINPAC, is a two-time Pushcart nominee whose fiction, essays, poetry, and book reviews have appeared in numerous publications. Jay served as Chief of Station in multiple countries and as an area division chief, and founded J.K. Gruner Associates, a business intelligence consultancy. Anne and Jay live in McLean, Virginia with their two golden retrievers. https://www.annegruner.com/
REVIEW — Longtime fans of Daniel Silva’s many best-selling novels have inevitably noted that his plot lines have migrated over the last 20 years. They began with Cold War spy tales in association with the Israeli intelligence service Mossad, then moved to thrillers about Western democratic allies fighting jihadist terrorists, and finally landed on the whereabouts and recovery of stolen classical paintings involving dishonest political organizations, organized criminal groups, and more recently, corruption inside the Vatican. In this 25th book in the Gabriel Allon series, An Inside Job, Silva brings these elements into play, including many of Allon’s former associates, in a fast-moving drama centered in Western Europe.
Without giving away too many details of an intriguing story line, the action begins in Venice where Gabriel Allon, who currently works in his wife Chiara’s firm cleaning and restoring classical paintings, discovers the corpse of a young woman in the waters of the Grand Canal near the basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore. The Carabinieri, with whom Allon has worked often in the past, are immediately engaged, and through a complicated investigation entailing British and Italian sources, the body and cause of death are identified. After a quick trip to London to consult with a former colleague, Allon himself plays a personal role in identifying the victim. The young British woman was an apprentice conservator in the Vatican Museum in Rome. A medical examiner establishes without a doubt that she was murdered. Allon, an expert art restorer, is intrigued by the case and becomes more and more entangled as the focus of the action shifts to the Vatican, where he also is a longtime friend of the new Pope, formerly Archbishop Luigi Donati who worked in the Vatican.
It soon becomes clear that a damaged painting from the Vatican’s conservation lab, which the victim had been studying and repairing as part of her training, is missing. Enter the “Art Squad” of the Italian Carabinieri in Rome to assume responsibility for the investigation. Naturally, it is assisted by Allon, who has a way of taking over cases, to both the annoyance and gratitude of law enforcement officials. Allon’s assistance and multitude of critical contacts in An Inside Job are as invaluable and interesting as ever.
The investigation reveals that the murdered victim had become convinced that the painting she was working on in the Vatican was an original Leonardo da Vinci that had been overpainted for some reason. Daniel Silva’s research on the methodology of restoring what was originally applied to a canvas, a process known in Italian as uncovering and identifying a “pentimento,” is meticulous. His descriptions of Allon’s investigative efforts with regard to the painting and restorative techniques are so detailed that it might lead one to believe that Silva himself is a practitioner. The artistically inclined will no doubt find this absorbing.
As Allon and the Art Squad work diligently to find and recover what increasingly appears to be a most valuable work of art, Allon encounters and calls upon a multitude of characters from his previous adventures. After appearing in 24 novels in as many years, Allon has quite a collection of helpers, many of whom appear in An Inside Job.
Allon’s close relationship with the new Pope, and the latter’s long-ago lover Veronica Marchese, is critical to sorting through ensuing Vatican intrigue and finances.
A slew of European art experts, many from other novels, not only help assess the authenticity of the stolen painting but are integral to the scheme to “reacquire” it from its illicit holders who are attempting to covertly sell it for hundreds of millions.
Ingrid Johansen, formerly a Danish thief and computer hacker portrayed in The Collector, is invaluable in acquiring critical documentation disclosing the whereabouts and travel of the missing painting.
The plethora of actors in An Inside Job might seem overwhelming, but a convenient character catalogue in the novel’s front pages makes an easy reference so the reader need not suffer any lingering confusion over identities, even if unfamiliar with Silva’s earlier work.
The Vatican’s troubled financial history in real life has been well-documented, including alleged connections to the Camorra, the Naples-centered Mafia-type organization. We hope the real Camorra does not get any ideas from Silva’s An Inside Job. As they penetrate and exploit the Vatican’s vast financial base through international financiers and gangsters, some of the Camorra’s agents make fatal errors in their management of pilfered Vatican funds. And the challenge of marketing a stolen painting via a clandestine bidding process becomes an interesting element of the plot. Officials of international spy agencies are largely absent from support roles to assess and recover such fine art, though some of their techniques play a key role. The use by Allon’s team of a malware program known as Proteus that can be covertly and remotely installed on mobile phones appears to operate in much the same way as the Pegasus spyware effectively controlled by the Israeli Government.
Eventually the search for the missing painting, sold for an unprecedented 500 million euros to an unidentified collector, moves the story from Italy to the Cote d’Azur, where a new challenge awaits the Allon team, which is joined by French border officials. The whereabouts and ownership of the stolen painting become known, but the question of how to get it back without the knowledge of its possessor remains to be resolved. The solution calls upon the team to work it out as “an inside job,” just as the removal of the painting from the Vatican was an “inside job.” Indeed, the vast majority of museum thefts are inside jobs. Special problems are presented by an art heist and recovery, which make for intriguing reading by those involved in the art world or not. Distinguishing real art from the exceptionally good fakes presents unique challenges as well as opportunities. We’ll leave it at that.
Silva’s portrayal of the Vatican’s financial structure and operations, and potential for corruption is fascinating, and the new Pope’s desire to end corruption in the Catholic Church and strengthen its worldwide membership refreshing. Silva’s Pope makes a compelling character, and like Pope Francis, who died as Silva was completing the novel, cares about the plight of migrants entering Europe through the small Italian island of Lampedusa, south of Sicily. The fictional portrayal of the Pope’s interesting personal life and inner feelings is both moving and disturbing, highlighting the obvious challenges of the job.
Readers are also treated to an entertaining glimpse of Allon’s twin children, with his daughter getting in trouble in school for organizing a climate change protest, something all too real in Venice. But Allon spends little time at home or at work restoring masterpieces when flying around Europe searching for stolen art. Wife Chiara, however, never seems to complain.
In short, Silva’s latest book, “An Inside Job,” is a well-written and suspenseful page turner that portrays a conflict between the forces of good and evil as they clash on a highly sensitive battlefield, an account that may disturb some readers who feel that battlefield is a sacred one not to be sullied by the launch of “an inside job” or the personal imperfections of a pope’s past life. In our view, Mr. Silva has shown once again that he is the master of his craft, and we look forward to reading the 26th book in this exceptional series.
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