The New Girl, Daniel Silva, author; George Guidall, narrator
Gabriel Allon and Sarah Bancroft find themselves working together again in an espionage investigation. Sarah still carries a torch for Allon, but he loves and is married to Chiara. Sarah, on the rebound, had an affair with Mikhail Abramov, but he too, married someone else. Now they are also thrown together again in this tense spy mystery.
Sarah, once a CIA agent, now in charge of a New York City museum’s art collection, is incongruously asked by the spoiled Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Khalid bin Mohammed, to help him get in touch with Gabriel Allon. She doesn’t want to, but eventually, learning about his reasons, she assents. Gabriel also agrees to help the future Saudi King. The novel is loosely connected to the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
Twelve year old Jihan, as she is called in her Swiss private school, is Khalid’s daughter and the love of his life. She has been kidnapped. The Crown Prince believes that the Israeli head of intelligence is his best hope for getting her back safely and Allon agrees to help. He abdicates the throne as a condition to free her. After the rescue effort goes awry, the Crown Prince, now an ordinary citizen, discovers that a trusted uncle, Abdullah, had deliberately and cold bloodedly engineered the tragic consequences in order to steal the throne from him.
When Allon is once again engaged to help the Crown Prince extract revenge against the uncle who engineered the tragedy, he agrees. His Uncle Abdullah conspired with the Russians to ascend to the throne. They wanted a puppet on the throne to give them power in the Middle East, and in Abdullah, they had one. Abdullah is now in their debt. He must also satisfy the radical fringe in his country and is returning the country to the Wahabi traditions, turning back the reforms Khalid had instituted, especially for women. Khalid wants vengeance. Allon wants justice. All are hoping that the actions now being planned will lead to better Middle East relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, and in the process, reduce Russian influence in the region.
The novel bounces from country to country as the mystery unravels and the crimes are solved. Silva writes a book that keeps you completely engaged. It has moments of jocular sarcasm and subtle humorous bantering between friends and enemies; it is fast moving, action packed and interesting. The intrigue and animus between some of the countries is factual. Although names are changed, it is possible to assume the identity of some that resemble real life heads of state and spymasters. Silva intermingles the facts with the fiction.