A review by mpetruce
A Death In Vienna by Daniel Silva
3.0
Gabriel Allon is back and fighting Nazis in Austria, who are alive and well and active (albeit very old). Still, an OK entry in the series. Silva seems to be painting countries' personalities -- mostly Austria, in this case -- with a pretty broad brush, but I don't really know enough about European politics to know what is more or less accurate or evocative and which is dramatic license.
One odd thing I notice about these books, considering they were written in the early 2000s, at least this one was, I get a sense that they should take place in the 90s or even the 80s. Judging by the timeline, Allon should be in his 50s (and his girlfriends seem to be half his age) yet he still bounces around like a kid. And hardly anyone has or uses a cell phone. Which is weird for the 21st century. Cell phones and email show up when they're needed to move the story ahead to a certain degree and then they disappear. It's not a huge problem, but it just feels kind of ... off.
One odd thing I notice about these books, considering they were written in the early 2000s, at least this one was, I get a sense that they should take place in the 90s or even the 80s. Judging by the timeline, Allon should be in his 50s (and his girlfriends seem to be half his age) yet he still bounces around like a kid. And hardly anyone has or uses a cell phone. Which is weird for the 21st century. Cell phones and email show up when they're needed to move the story ahead to a certain degree and then they disappear. It's not a huge problem, but it just feels kind of ... off.