A Death in Vienna (Gabriel Allon Series #4) Book

"I deal with the real world, not the world as I would like it to be."

"A Death in Vienna" is Daniel Silva's 4th book in his Gabriel Allon series, and #s 2-4 form their own sort of mini trilogy dealing with the "unfinished business of the Holocaust". The aftermath of the horrors of the Nazis, the anti-Semitism they stirred up, and its place in our current world was the subject of those three books, and "A Death in Vienna" is the best of the three.
This text, like the others in the series follow the exploits of art restorer and reluctant Israeli agent Gabriel Allon and although the tried and true formula for the series is present here, of the five books in the series I have read thus far this one is the most cerebral. The truths and horrors it presents are chilling when one considers that anti-Semitism is openly flaunted at times in the halls of the United Nations today.
Mr. Silva used real life events (such as the Birkenau Death March, and the efforts of Bishop Hudal to aide fleeing war criminals) and Holocaust survivor's testimony to very disturbing effect in this novel, more so than in his previous. A harrowing chapter that details the Birkenau Death March is sobering and necessarily unpleasant reading. He manages to capture the essence of the Nazi's motivation for this ridiculous last-ditch effort to hide the facts of the Holocaust and the long lasting effects on those who survived it.
The Gabriel Allon series is quick page turning reading, and I enjoy them from time to time. I will pick up the fifth book in the series soon.