The New Girl

The New Girl by Daniel Silva  479 pp.

I swore I was not going to read this the instant it came out because then I would have to wait another year for the next one. I only made it a few days before I just had to read it. This is the 19th book in the series about the now Head of Mossad, Gabriel Allon. The "new girl" of the title is the daughter of the Saudi crown prince, Khalid ben Mohammed -- KBM for short. When his daughter is kidnapped from her exclusive private school in Switzerland the prince, in an unprecedented move, enlists the help of Gabriel Allon to find her. The usual characters from previous books return in this episode including Sara Bancroft, Graham Seymour, Christopher Keller, and the Mossad team of agents that are like family to fans of the series. I won't give any spoilers here but this is one of Silva's best. The introduction tells how Silva started this book over after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The afterward by the author, who once worked for the State Department, is a chilling warning of what changing alliances could do to the disturbing international political climate. Now I wait for the next book.

A Gentleman in Moscow

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, 462 pages.
A really delightful book about the fictional Count Alexander Rostov who is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol Hotel in Moscow. It's 1922 when the Bolshevik court hands down the sentence and the book follows Rostov over the coming decades. Rostov rescues young Nina, after her mother disappears. Rostov adapts to his circumstances, eventually becoming head waiter at the hotel's celebrated restaurant. Looking forward to discussing this book in next year's book group.

The Rat Catchers' Olympics

The Rat Catchers' Olympics by Colin Cotterill  278 pp,

This is book is the twelfth in the Dr. Siri Paiboun series. In 1980 the Olympic Games in Moscow were boycotted by the U.S. and other countries. Countries that never competed before are invited to join the games and Laos is one of them. Dr. Siri, his wife Madame Daeng, and Nurse Dtui travel to Moscow with the small team as their medical staff. Sudden suspicious personnel changes to the Laos team spark Dr. Siri's curiosity. Soon deaths, blackmail, and threats become their focus with Inspector Phosey investigating threats in Laos and making coded phone calls to the others in Moscow. While the investigating proceeds there is a humorous unofficial "Olympic" rat catching contest after it is learned that a total of three "professional rat catchers" are competing in other events in the games. It's an interesting look at relations between then communist countries and an entertaining book in general.    

A Gentleman in Moscow / Amor Towles, 462 pp.

It was a perfect pleasure to read this, Amor Towles' second novel following Rules of Civility, which I will request as soon as I have finished typing.

Count Alexander Rostov, with a long list of goofily elaborate honorifics after his name, becomes a Former Person (what a phrase!) following the Revolution and is placed under permanent house arrest in the lavish and sophisticated Metropol hotel.  There, like a hearty plant, he adapts and thrives in the rich soil of the hotel, among foreign diplomats, movie stars, Kremlin officials, and the hotel's humble but no less distinguished staff.  It is his relationships with Nina and Sofia, women born a generation apart, that set the course for the Count's life, and form the core of the story. 

A bit of spycraft, plenty of history, exquisite cuisine, charming banter, and loving friendships combine in a novel that displays a remarkable amount of erudition without ever losing its sense of fun.

Gorky Park / Martin Cruz Smith 373 pp.

This has been on my list for a long time.  A lot has changed since this was published in 1981, but it reads well even post-Cold War.  Arkady Renko is Moscow's chief homicide investigator when three bodies are found in Gorky Park, a popular pleasure center near Red Square.  The investigation is enjoyably complex and involves nasty encounters with the KGB and, because it's Moscow in 1980, Americans too, as though that city and its people couldn't exist without a capitalist foil.   Renko is an archetypical investigator: tough, smart, with impeccable ethics and tortured relationships with women. But the character's predictable contours enhance the story, somehow, perhaps leaving Cruz Smith freer to craft an intricate plot and saturate it with an amazing level of local detail.  I don't know if it was accurately researched but I hope so - I finished the book almost feeling like I'd visited the time and place.  If you've never read this, I strongly recommend it.