Daniel Silva: The Order, Harper Collins, 9780008280833, C format paperback, available,

Summertime, thriller time and Daniel Silva is one of my favorite thriller writers. Luckily he has produced a new one for the summer, “The Order”, which is set in the Vatican and of course has Gabriel Allon as his chief protagonist. Apart from being the head spymaster at the Israeli intelligence, he is also a master art restorer. He had befriended liberal Pope Paul VII when he saved his life during an assault; his sudden death raises a lot of suspicion whether it was indeed a natural one.  Since an ultra-conservative, influential order seems to have connections into the highest offices of the Holy Church planning to gain the upper hand and the late Pope’s personal Swiss Guard has also disappeared,  Luigi Donati, the pope’ personal secretary and also a friend of Allon summons Gabriel to Rome to investigate.   They soon discover that a secret book of an apocryphal gospel which was hidden in the secret Vatican archives until it founds its way into the dead pope’s hand, has disappeared as well.  

Having studied a few semesters of comparative religious sciences myself,  I was fascinated and familiar with the academic doubts raised about the accuracy of the gospels still taught  by the Catholic Church and of the existence of apocryphal ones who are disregarded and would cast a somewhat different light on many teachings of the church. 

 Silva cleverly spins a complicated plot combining several  murders,  the secret dealings of the Vatican including the election process for a new pope  and the accuracy of the gospels still taught by the Catholic church. Silva’s author notes are particularly interesting and illuminating; had a fun time reading “The Order”.