The Kill Artist: 1 (Gabriel Allon)

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In Paris, Tariq al-Hourani kills the Israeli ambassador, his wife and two bodyguards. He then shoots and kills an American student he had being seeing as cover. Ari Shamron has been reinstated as director of the Office after a series of disasters. Shamron is saddled with Lev Ahroni as his operations chief. Shamron watches international news feeds of the assassination. He calls Uzi Navot in Paris and issues instructions then travels to Jerusalem to brief the Prime Minister. He identifies the perpetrator as al-Hourani and asks permission to assign Gabriel to kill al-Hourani. The prime minister agrees. Gabriel spearheaded a team that located and killed the operatives in the “Munich Massacre.” Seventeen years later, Tariq took vengeance upon Gabriel—family member for family member—by planting a bomb under the Allons’ car in Vienna. Gabriel witnessed his family’s horrifying destruction. His son Dani died instantly, while his wife Leah was left with a shattered mind and body. In Vienna in January 1991, Gabriel Allon, using the alias Mario Delvecchio, finishes his work as an art restorer for the day and dines with his wife Leah and son Dani. As the Leah and Dani are preparing to return to Israel, their car explodes, killing Dani and severely injuring Leah. A car bombing in Paris, killing the Israel Ambassador and his wife, bears Tariq’s “hallmarks” of detailed planning, execution and escape. Not everyone in the PLO agrees with Yasir Arafat brokering a peace deal with the Israelis, and Shamron is pessimistic that the peace deal will hold when so many elements on both sides wants it to fail. With politics in Israel taking an ugly turn, Shamron flies to England to coax Gabriel out of retirement to seek revenge on Tariq. He is to set up his own organisation in London, separate from Israeli intelligence, and blindsiding both MI5 and Langley, which is closely monitoring the peace deal. Somewhat reluctantly, he recruits French Jew and model, Jacqueline, whom he worked with before, as a “honeypot” to infiltrate Tariq’s organisation.

Uzi flies to Jerusalem with a video tape of he ambassador's last minutes. After he and Shamron review the tape, Uzi visits Bella. Yossi Gavish identifies a waiter on the tape. Al-Hourani learns that the Office suspects him of killing the ambassador, that his next layover will be in Amsterdam and that he has been targeted for assassination by "an old friend." There are a lot of dead end roads here. So many in fact you will be hard pressed to guess just who are the hunters and who are the hunted. It will keep you on your toes. Years later, a stranger is living in Port Navas, Cornwall, England. Timothy Peel, a bored youngster, learns that he is an art restorer. The stranger offers Peel a job watching his residence. Gabriel travels to Paris. Enroute he listens to the surveillance tapes, trying to fill in the gaps. After arriving in Paris, he meets with Ari Shamron. Uzi Navot, whom Gabriel has never met before, is also present; Gabriel instantly dislikes Uzi. The tapes reveal that al-Tawfiki wants Jacqueline to travel to an undisclosed location with a man she has never met whom al-Tawfiki describes as a peace-loving Palestinian diplomat who needs attend a meeting so he can express his reservations about the impact of the peace process on the Palestinians. Gabriel says that the Office should kill al-Tawfiki and forget about al-Hourani. Shamron responds that he does not want the former; he wants the latter.The Kill Artist” suffered from some “too cute” plot devices and some too easily wrapped up plot points, and from a ridiculous scene with Yasir Arafat and the main bad guy in the text, a terrorist named Tariq.

Like many of this genre, you have a good (and troubled) guy who works for Israeli intelligence working with his stunningly beautiful and capable heroine with whom he has a complicated (of course) relationship. And of course, you have the bad guys who are always one step ahead of the good guys, but then the good guys catch up, but then the bad guys catch on, etc., etc. I was disappointed the following was not shown. A woman was being trained as an agent. She was told to figure out who was following her. She reported three people and was wrong. Next time she reported three people and was right. I wanted to see what she saw and why she concluded what she did. This is a bad book. A very bad book.” He opined, talking off his owl-like steel glasses with his short, stubby fingers. He pinched the bridge of his nose where the nose pieces had left deep red indentations. The very same nose that had been broken by a piece of Egyptian shrapnel during the six-day war. Jacqueline Delacroix, a beautiful French supermodel who is also an Israeli spy. She uses her seductive charms and feminine wiles to help lure suspected or known terrorists into compromising positions for intel-gathering. During her last mission with Gabriel, the two became more intimate than their cover-identities required. Shortly after, Tariq’s car-bomb killed Allon’s son and left his wife a vegetable. She is conflicted: while she has tremendous guilt about what happened during the last mission, she can’t help but still be in love with Allon.This is a stylish spy thriller with the ‘cold' war of the twentieth century superseded by the ‘secret’ war in the middle-east and its international support network. There are harrowing descriptions of atrocities committed against Palestinians held in refugee camps of Beirut - which Israel chose to ignore - and a killer haunted by the deaths he committed in the service of his country. Gabriel sends Jacqueline to the same club al-Tawfiki plans to visit, hoping that al-Tawfiki will be attracted to her. He is. Al-Tawfiki invites Jacqueline to his apartment. She accepts and they sleep together. The next morning, while al-Tawfiki is showering, Jacqueline makes impressions of the keys to his building and apartment. She fears al-Tawfiki knows what she has done, but accepts his invitation to dinner that evening. This is the first in a series starring Gabriel Allon, whose cover is that of an art restoration specialist. He’s paired with Jacqueline Delacroix, an international fashion model whose been groomed for just such assignments.

Realizing that her modeling career is declining and unfulfilling, Jacqueline accepts Gabriel’s role for her and seduces Yusef. Although this allows Gabriel to bug Yusef’s apartment, it likewise blows Jacqueline’s cover, for Yusef finds her making imprints of his keys and later sees Gabriel in his building. Gabriel is very concerned with Jacqueline’s safety and therefore tries to pull her from the operation. Shamron, however, insists that her identity as Dominique Bonard is secure and insists that Gabriel continue the plan. Eh. Kind of an ordinary spy thriller, one I might have appreciated more had I read it 15-20 years ago when I was less jaded.

Azouri and al-Hourani meet again in Lisbon. Al-Hourani explains that he has identified Jacqueline Delacroix and will use her on his next operation. Gabriel rents an apartment from which he observes the activities of Yusef al-Tawfiki, a Palestinian known to be an associate of Tariq al-Hourani; he begins to surveil Tawfiki. In Montreal, Leila rents a car and drives with Jacqueline to a major hotel in the city. At the hotel, Jacqueline meets "Lucien Daveau." Tariq al-Hourani maintains his false identity and challenges Jacqueline's motivation for accompanying him. She replies that she is with him out of love for Yusef al-Tawfiki. Al-Hourani takes her shopping for clothes appropriate to the winter weather of Montreal. Ari Shamron, a Mossad spymaster, recruited and trained Allon, his best agent. Allon is also his most troubled agent, for reasons that go beyond the fateful day involving Allon’s wife and son. Shamron and Allon are as different as night and day: Allon loathes violence, while Shamron revels in it; Allon does not believe that everything that the Israeli government has done is for the best, while Shamron can not believe otherwise; Allon believes that revenge leads to spiritual death, while Shamron believes that revenge is a biblical necessity. Strangely, though, they make a superior team. The head of the Ottawa Station meets Shamron and Gabriel in Montreal. He reports that he and his staff followed Jacqueline and another woman from the airport to the hotel, where the woman turned Jacqueline over to a man who might be Tariq al-Hourani. Zvi also tells Shamron that King Saul Boulevard is aware that something is happening in Canada. Al-Hourani stayed by Jacqueline's side while she bought winter clothing. At the hotel, Jean, the concierge and a sayan, gives Gabriel a magnetic card key which Gabriel uses to enter al-Hourani's room to plant a bug. Gabriel then goes to the Office command post in a nearby hotel. The escape routes are planned. Another member of the Ottawa Station staff provides video of al-Hourani. Shamron says it is time to end the operation and go home.