The English Assassin is the second book in author Daniel Silva’s series about art restorer and Israeli secret agent Gabriel Allon. It had been a while since I read the previous book in the series, The Kill Artist, when I downloaded this audiobook. There were enough details provided by the author that I wasn’t lost, and what I’d read several years before came back to me.

Gabriel Allon is specifically asked for by a banker in Switzerland to restore a painting. His connections in Israel tell him the banker wants to reveal some information as well, and they would like Gabriel to handle it. When he arrives at the banker’s palatial home, he finds the banker dead. Despite the precautions he takes, Gabriel is soon caught by the Swiss police. It would seem someone wanted to pin the murder on him. His connections extract him, and he’s ordered not to return. However, Gabriel has a few questions of his own and makes the acquaintance of the banker’s estranged daughter, Anna Rolfe. Anna is a violin virtuoso who knows some of her father’s past, but not all of it. She wants to help uncover what her father was about to reveal as well, so the two team up.

The title character is a hired assassin who has been sent to kill Gabriel, and possibly Anna, before they can uncover her late father’s secrets. He has interacted with Gabriel before. He is also the one who set up Gabriel to take the fall for his murder. It’s quite the cat and mouse between them as Gabriel seems to know he’s there, but is not sure what to do about it. Most of the time, he is barely evading being in the line of fire. It’s really a great bit of intrigue.

The mystery is fairly obvious from the beginning, especially in this day and age, after we’ve seen movies such as The Monuments Men. The book delves deeply into how Swiss bankers enriched themselves during the Second World War. It’s the non-interaction between Gabriel and Christopher Keller, the former SAS agent turned hired killer, that keeps the tension going. They are known to each other and yet don’t know each other. The action in the book slips between the two of them as they circle each other. All the while, Gabriel needs to protect Anna and uncover why her father was killed. It’s quite a good thriller with plenty of action, and villains that are easy to dislike.

Is it fairly contrived that Gabriel and Anna will fall into a relationship? Probably, but they are dealing with difficult emotions. Anna is estranged from her father, but his death and learning the truth about him weigh heavily on her. Gabriel still has unresolved feelings about the death of his wife and son, which have made him hesitant about allowing anyone to get close to him. He ends up feeling a sense of responsibility and fondness for Anna, but the ghosts of his past are still quite obviously there. I give Daniel Silva credit for being able to portray these two people so well. It could have just been a typical plot device, but it feels genuine. This is also true of the perceptions of Keller as he learns the truth about what Gabriel is doing. It’s not quite as cut-and-dried to kill someone as he once thought it was.

The unabridged audiobook is narrated by John Lee. I enjoyed his narration, and he seems to mostly read the story, with just a few inflections in his voice to denote different emotions and suspense. He doesn’t try too hard to become the characters, which I enjoy more in these types of books. In comedic mysteries, I don’t mind so much when the narrator takes on the characters more, as long as they pace the humor well. When the story is more serious, I like that type of narration much less.

I enjoyed The English Assassin quite a bit. The story had a lot of action and flowed nicely. The audiobook was excellent to listen to and gave me a great story to read. I’ll definitely be continuing with the series.

Previous book in the series: