A masterful tale that involves Neanderthals, espionage, and murder.
A techno-thriller focuses on a shocking archaeological discovery.
In this novel, which features a mix of genres, epochs, and life forms, Fundin takes readers on a vertigo-inducing trip from one corner of the globe to another. It takes a lot of ink to cover so much territory (mental and physical), but the book is so fast-paced that its 350-plus pages never get ponderous. The story opens during the Cold War in an East Berlin divided into politically opposed factions. Russian spy Igor Gerasim Klurov, a nuclear scientist and sergeant in the Strategic Space Forces, is perplexed when an anonymous driver picks him up at the airport and whisks him through the city streets as they head toward “the source of the secret.” What secret? That enigma swirls around a startling archaeological find: 40,000-year-old fossilized Neanderthal skeletons. Homo sapiens committed what is deemed to be the first genocide in history—the systematic extinction of the Neanderthals, with whom they shared the planet. Homo sapiens took over the world, but eventually they were threatened by vengeful neo-Neanderthals, determined to wipe them out. Modern-day scientists use the skeletons to map the Neanderthals’ genome, which poses a scientific and ethical dilemma: Should they be cloned? Thus begins a tumultuous mystery/thriller in ever changing locations and time periods as factions fight for control of the skeletons. Frightening covert medical research in a hospital, punctuated with murders and all manner of subterfuge, drives the well-crafted plot. With one unpredictable twist after another, things get even more complex when readers learn that many of the characters are not at all who they seem. Some have assumed false identities. The good guys are actually the bad guys—or are they? The book concludes with a philosophical and existential issue that is eerily reflective of today’s societal ills and encompasses the questionable future of humanity. Fundin’s skill in weaving seemingly unrelated elements into a cohesive, logical storyline makes for a novel that readers will quickly devour. Fans of Robin Cook and John le Carré will be spellbound.
A masterful tale that involves Neanderthals, espionage, and murder.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2020
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Asioni Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A rather flat entry in a generally excellent series.
The 25th novel featuring Silva’s legendary protagonist.
During his intersecting careers as art restorer and Israeli spy, Gabriel Allon has tangled with Russian gangsters and al-Qaida terrorists. He has become well-acquainted with operatives in multiple security agencies and befriended a paid assassin. He has busted art thieves and created passable forgeries by Renaissance masters and abstract Modernists. This latest installment centers around his relationship with the pope and a newly discovered painting by Leonardo da Vinci that has gone missing from the Vatican. Silva’s novels tend to fall into two categories: books that reflect the politics of the day and books that don’t. His latest is one of the latter, which could be a treat for readers looking for escape, but it falls flat for a variety of reasons. Luxury has always been part of Gabriel Allon’s universe. It used to be an aspect of tradecraft, though. Allon would be wearing a very expensive suit and driving a very expensive car because he was posing as a client at a Swiss bank. Here, his wife is hosting a catered lunch for 150 of their daughter’s classmates in their apartment overlooking the Grand Canal in Venice. What once felt like a scintillating peek into the world of the obscenely wealthy now just feels…kind of obscene. Similarly, Allon goes chasing after a missing painting as a civilian—he retired from Mossad in Portrait of an Unknown Woman (2022)—the same way another man his age might buy a speedboat or get hair plugs. As the story progresses, the stakes are raised, but it’s hard to forget that Allon is now a middle-aged man pursuing a dangerous hobby, rather than a spymaster leading his intrepid team to prevent a disaster that will disrupt the global order.
A rather flat entry in a generally excellent series.Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9780063384217
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
Intrigue, murder, and vengeance make for a darkly enjoyable read.
A woman’s life takes a stunning turn and a wall comes tumbling down in this tense Cold War spy drama.
In Berlin in 1989, the wall is about to crumble, and Anne Simpson’s husband, Stefan Koehler, goes missing. She is a translator working with refugees from the communist bloc, and he is a piano tuner who travels around Europe with orchestras. Or so he claims. German intelligence service the BND and America’s CIA bring her in for questioning, wrongly thinking she’s protecting him. Soon she begins to learn more about Stefan, whom she had met in the Netherlands a few years ago. She realizes he’s a “gregarious musician with easy charm who collected friends like a beachcomber collects shells, keeping a few, discarding most.” Police find his wallet in a canal and his prized zither in nearby bushes but not his body. Has he been murdered? What’s going on? And why does the BND care? If Stefan is alive, he’s in deep trouble, because he’s believed to be working for the Stasi. She’s told “the dead have a way of showing up. It is only the living who hide.” And she’s quite believable when she wonders, “Can you grieve for someone who betrayed you?” Smart and observant, she notes that the reaction by one of her interrogators is “as false as his toupee. Obvious, uncalled for, and easily put on.” Lurking behind the scenes is the Matchmaker, who specializes in finding women—“American. Divorced. Unhappy,” and possibly having access to Western secrets—who will fall for one of his Romeos. Anne is the perfect fit. “The matchmaker turned love into tradecraft,” a CIA agent tells her. But espionage is an amoral business where duty trumps decency, and “deploring the morality of spies is like deploring violence in boxers.” It’s a sentiment John le Carré would have endorsed, but Anne may have the final word.
Intrigue, murder, and vengeance make for a darkly enjoyable read.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64313-865-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Pegasus Crime
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2022
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