The Cellist: A Novel

Daniel Silva

Jul 2021 · Gabriel Allon Book 21 · HarperAudio · Narrated by Edoardo Ballerini

About this audiobook

From Daniel Silva, the internationally acclaimed #1 New York Times bestselling author, comes a timely and explosive new thriller featuring art restorer and legendary spy Gabriel Allon.

Viktor Orlov had a longstanding appointment with death. Once Russia’s richest man, he now resides in splendid exile in London, where he has waged a tireless crusade against the authoritarian kleptocrats who have seized control of the Kremlin. His mansion in Chelsea’s exclusive Cheyne Walk is one of the most heavily protected private dwellings in London. Yet somehow, on a rainy summer evening, in the midst of a global pandemic, Russia’s vengeful president finally manages to cross Orlov’s name off his kill list.

Before him was the receiver from his landline telephone, a half-drunk glass of red wine, and a stack of documents....

The documents are contaminated with a deadly nerve agent. The Metropolitan Police determine that they were delivered to Orlov’s home by one of his employees, a prominent investigative reporter from the anti-Kremlin Moskovskaya Gazeta. And when the reporter slips from London hours after the killing, MI6 concludes she is a Moscow Center assassin who has cunningly penetrated Orlov’s formidable defenses.

But Gabriel Allon, who owes his very life to Viktor Orlov, believes his friends in British intelligence are dangerously mistaken. His desperate search for the truth will take him from London to Amsterdam and eventually to Geneva, where a private intelligence service controlled by a childhood friend of the Russian president is using KGB-style “active measures” to undermine the West from within. Known as the Haydn Group, the unit is plotting an unspeakable act of violence that will plunge an already divided America into chaos and leave Russia unchallenged. Only Gabriel Allon, with the help of a brilliant young woman employed by the world’s dirtiest bank, can stop it.

Elegant and sophisticated, provocative and daring, The Cellist explores one of the preeminent threats facing the West today—the corrupting influence of dirty money wielded by a revanchist and reckless Russia. It is at once a novel of hope and a stark warning about the fragile state of democracy. And it proves once again why Daniel Silva is regarded as his generation’s finest writer of suspense and international intrigue.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Ratings and reviews

Loved the series, until this one!! Terrible. Why, would Silva expose his leftist political views after all of this time? Had no place in the series - was always based more in Israel and Europe. Success breeds ego and, for some reason, Silva thinks we care about what he thinks re US leftist political ramblings vs the historical fiction of the Israeli spy. Silva is wrong. He’s lost a reader. And George Guidall was a much better narrator too. Regret I can’t award 0-stars.

I have bought all this authors book and loved them until now. You as an author chose to embrace the leftist democrat narrative of the capital riot and its very clear you don't like Trump or republican s. As a Christian I love and support the nation of Israel and since your main character is based in Israel I was also drawn to this series. I am very disappointed that you have decided to pollute this great platform with your unbiased political agenda statement. I will not buy another one of your books. That makes me sad.

I agree with the others. I read it 3 times now trying very hard to like it but I cannot. George Guidall might or might not been able to save this but I doubt it. This is the 2nd book I 'pre-purchased' assuming Mr Guidall would continue as the series narrator only to find out he was not the narrator. So 2 books I waited a year for sorely disappointed.

About the author

Daniel Silva is the award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Unlikely Spy, The Mark of the Assassin, The Marching Season, The Kill Artist, The English Assassin, The Confessor, A Death in Vienna, Prince of Fire, The Messenger, The Secret Servant, Moscow Rules, The Defector, The Rembrandt Affair, Portrait of a Spy, The Fallen Angel, The English Girl, The Heist, The English Spy, The Black Widow, House of Spies, The Other Woman, The New Girl, The Order, The Collector, and A Death in Cornwall. He is best known for his long-running thriller series starring spy and art restorer Gabriel Allon. Silva’s books are critically acclaimed bestsellers around the world and have been translated into more than thirty languages.

Edoardo ballerini was nominated for a 2012 Audie Award for his recording of The Land of Laughs. He has also received four Earphones Awards from AudioFile Magazine. On screen, Edoardo is best known for his work in the television series The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, and 24, as well as the films Dinner Rush and Romeo Must Die.