"The Rembrandt Affair" by Daniel Silva

Gabriel Allon, for years as a top agent working for the Israeli Mossad, has acknowledged after his last lethal use in the depths of Russian birch forests his ministry. He has set in Cornwall to rest, can devote himself to his passion as a restorer again and has primarily finally time for his beloved wife Chiara. He had indeed removed at the last minute from captivity by Ivan Kharkov, like us “Oligarch” was reported in. She is severely traumatized and still suffers.

But long their common foreclosure does not last.

One day crosses in her idyllic cottage Julian Isherwood, a small light, which once had to be done by Israeli intelligence a mini job. It is the sheer desperation that drives him to Gabriel, for he has privately and anonymously a hitherto-lost painting by Rembrandt purchased and then offered to the National Gallery in Washington for purchase. Now, the restorer who should get the “Portrait of a Young Woman” was shot dead in his studio found, and the image is gone.

If it can muster a again, Gabriel. But hesitates yet. But Chiara is impressed after the first look at the photo of the painting so that the same all concerns are put on hold and you decide to work together to do everything masterpiece and ruthless killer track.

At first she runs her way to Amsterdam. Where Rembrandt created his art, sold in 1936, a Dutch gallery owner the image of a rich Jew, Jacob Herzfeld. Gabriel has no hope that there are still members of this family, as almost all Jews were in Holland in the hands of the Germans.

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But come Gabriel and Chiara in the old Jewish archives in the name of a survivor: Lena. The shy old lady lives quietly and do not really want to talk about their past. After all, she suggests that blood cling to the image and would that more people die. Her father had called Voss sold the picture for a measly amount of an SS man to rescue the two daughters in return for a promise. But Voss did not keep his word; Only Lena took it with, because she was blond-haired. So they got away.

After the war, many Nazis escaped with the help of the church and other organizations to Argentina, among them Voss. His precious paintings he left in the custody of Swiss banks back, and now the crime attracts wide international circles. The rich, clean and honorable Alps Ländle is even the gigantic values ​​that rest in the darkness of his safes, reluctant to back out, and then only after lengthy legal proof of ownership procedures. So remained the Rembrandt, among many other treasures such as jewelry, securities, etc from Jewish hands, at the federal banker Martin Landesman; for the heaped up thus as much start-up capital that he built up as a result a huge conglomerate of international companies and he eventually became one of the richest men in the world. Through generous donations and phenomenal charity balls in his villa on Lake Geneva – an attraction for the Upper Volée – he acquired the nickname “Saint Martin”, and yet it is to him to be uncomfortable, apostrophiert way. After all, no one knows better than himself, who is behind the facade of the do-gooders: a greedy, unscrupulous criminals who make their dirty business with any ready – currently, for example, with Iran

As. confirmed the suspicion that the country man Iran useful equipment for nuclear plant unless supplies -waffenbau, we arrived in Daniel Silva’s Lieblingsmetier, the movie thriller. The secret CIA, MI5, MI6 and Mossad join together in the company “Masterpiece”. Its objective is clear: convert the opponents end his ugly business. Only: How to come close to the man and his control center? The times of interception means bugs are long gone; Nowadays more subtle methods like hooking up into PC networks, permanent monitoring of communication and GPS positioning is leave no breath of the enemy more unheard blow away, no matter where it is breathed on the globe. As always, Silva has well researched here and keeps us up to date on the state of the art.

But even on the world political trouble spots. Silva has since proved a good sense. His Thriller, first published in March 2010 in the US, is still two years later unchanged red-hot. Yesterday’s news (3/28/2012) reported again, as for weeks secretive about Iran’s aggressive tone against Israel accompanied nuclear policy and the fairly openly expressed Israel’s willingness to put this threat of unauthorized pre-emptive strike against Iran an end no matter may be the price for the region and the world as high.

Like Iran denies building nuclear weapons; as always the nasty suspicion arises that he is very well run this secret; like a lot of harmless items that are needed for such purposes come from Europe, Russia, China and the United States into the country; as this kind machinations are revealed by risky investigative studies – so that brings Silva’s fictional plot our reality in a surprising and frightening, a

The political thriller is not enough Silva but obviously. It provides a second, seven decades into the past-reaching plot line to Nazi crimes and the Rembrandt picture next to (or above), who even gives the title. He likes to point a historical parallelism or continuity of anti-Semitism or material and personal ties suggest, but really conclusive motivated I do not find this dual concept.

In addition bother me again that Silva in his thrillers like a very simple black and white image maintains; Good and evil are always clearly defined. For example, the Israelis are basically victims; the rest of the world is conspiring against them. Cause – consequence is with him a one-way street interactions are not designed more for Silva. (NB: I speak of the Roman world and will not comment on the real policy).

Despite these certain simplicity to me, Daniel Silva’s latest novel “The Rembrandt Affair” liked in the translation by Wulf Bergner. He reads quickly and has – unlike some of his predecessors – a relatively concentrated narrative. I also found beneficial that the author has this time apart from the vivid design bloodthirsty atrocities on the occasion of torture and killings. A little quieter than one would otherwise expect from Silva – and that is why worth reading for me thriller that actually creates nothing new, but a thousand things we learn every day from the media, weaving a large carpet.