THE ENGLISH SPY starts out with a bang. Literally a bombing. A mysterious assassin masquerading as a chef gets hired in St. Barts for a Caribbean holiday cruise aboard a luxury yacht where the guests include the ex-Royal Princess and her entourage. After a delicious day of sun bathing and eating and drinking, the chef plants a bomb, escapes from the yacht and blows it up remotely. Although conspiracy theories about an ex-princess's death being a murder are plentiful, this scenario is more reminiscent of the Lord Mountbatten murder in 1979 by the Provisional Irish Republican Army. The British are stumped in their attempt to find the killers of the beloved people's princess until Seymour of MI6 receives a message from the Israeli foreign intelligence.

Then we switch to Italy where Gabriel Allon is restoring a famous stolen painting, Caravaggio's Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence masterpiece, as he awaits the birth of his twins. This is possibly Allon's last restoration as it may be difficult in the future for the next head of Israeli intelligence to indulge in his artist passion. But Seymour arrives with a special request. It seems the murder of the ex-princess has a connection; Eamon Quinn, an IRA bomber the Israelis had offered to eliminate years ago is the primary suspect. Now Seymour needs a favor. The best man for the job is a British deserter turned professional assassin -- Christopher Keller. Allon is Seymour's only connection who can convince Keller to hunt down the bomber and eliminate him for the British. And to sweeten the deal, this is the bomber with personal connections to both Keller and Allon. Revenge is better when it's personal.

Taking the reader from Italy to Ireland to Portugal and back to London on a fast-paced hunt to track down the bomber and find out who really paid for the killing is a tale in itself. Allon's team is put together one more time to trap the killers. The addition of Keller just adds to the excitement and bodes well for future Allon novels. THE ENGLISH SPY is the fifteenth novel in the Gabriel Allon series and although it's not necessary to read all the previous books, if you're a espionage thriller aficionado you really don't want to miss them.

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