 In this video, I will be sharing the top reviews of the latest book in the New York Times bestseller, The Cellist. I picked these reviews from the Goodreads website. All the resources are in the description. But before we get to the review let's see a little bit of what this book is about. Victor Orlev had a long-standing 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 Shanewalk 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 Orlev's name off his kill list. Before he 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 Orlev'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-centered assassin who has cunningly penetrated Orlev's formidable defenses. But Gabriel alone, who owes his very life to Victor Orlev, believes his friends and 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 alone, 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. Now we are at the reviews part. David Putman says I hesitate to put DNF because I know I'm gonna get pummeled by Silva fans. But this one, like the last one, just didn't have the mojo to hold me in the story. I gave it until page 200. I'd read three wonderful books of his right in a row, then the last two. Dot not so much. This is a great book the way it describes all the ins and outs of money laundering, but there's too much of it. This is a spy thriller. What I also missed was the conflict being firmly set. I didn't know what was going on, what the goal was. And the really big one, there wasn't any jeopardy in the first 200 pages. There wasn't anybody after anybody, no tension. If it gets better toward the end I didn't wait for it. Alas, because the two in a row, I'm afraid I am no longer a hard cover the day it comes out kind of guy. I'm gonna have to wait on the paperback for the next. Kristen from Texas says that this book is disappointing. Truly disappointing. After 21 books I guess it's time to retire Gabriel alone. I didn't think I'd ever say that, but it was a good run. Unfortunately, this is just the latest entertainer, actor, sportsperson, now writer that thinks the public needs to see and agree with their political point of view. I'm so tired of this. I wish entertainers would understand that if they bring politics into things, you are going to alienate 50% of the public. You could still get your point across by using a fictional president like all of the other books in this genre. Did you really have to go to such great lengths to destroy years of readership? I'm just so tired of this. I never thought I would DNF an alone book, but after chapter 44, I just could not go on. Anna Amato says that Gabriel alone is leaving the office in a year and a half. That is not a spoiler, if you've been reading Daniel Silva's books you know this. He's earned the right to his happy ending, to live out the rest of his life with his children and his beautiful and extremely smart wife doing exactly what makes him happy which is restoring art and people. Now that that's out of the way onto the housekeeping. Yes, I received an ARC, Advanced Readers Copy, which means I'll read, and it is completely honest. If I don't like it if in any way I am disappointed I'm free to say that. In all honesty, that has never happened although I do have several all-time favorites. When I started reading The Cellist, I was happily meeting old friends from the office and smiling every time one of them appeared especially David Bull. It was as if a breeze of fresh air blew into my home. Layer by layers like a painter restoring an art, treasure or page by page like an author who is master of his craft a spell was being woven. There was the sly, dry humor and the familiar repetition of phrases. Just ask me what someone important was wearing. I can repeat verbatim and the waiting. Always the waiting, among other descriptions of character or clothing. Silva's characters are as real to him as they are to the readers. You can hear that when he discusses them in an interview. His admiration and respect for women are also clear in the way he writes about them and talks about them which is a rare treat. Nancy B says that as others who have read the series from the start, I will read any Gabriel alone book. That said, this is a weak sister in the group. Little participation from the usual support gang at his intelligence service. Rather, the plot resembles others where a lone trains and places an amateur into a group he wants to fight two more problems. Number one Mr. Silva's extreme dislike for President Trump colors and weakens the last third of the book. Number two he begins to deal with Gabriel's imminent retirement by suggesting a candidate replace him as head of the Israeli Intelligence Service. But this person lacks the combination of biography, experience and talents that make Gabriel such an engaging, complex character. It's not unlike the prospect of the Prince of Wales, whose life had mostly been waiting, replacing him the Queen. Dot who has such depth of experience and history going back to the abdication and World War II. Maybe Mr. Silva should just end the series and not continue with a new head of intelligence. Donna Gropper says that Daniel Silva's new book, The Cellist, is yet another fine work by one of the masters of international spy novels. This book has all the well-researched World Affairs background, intertwined with bad guys versus good guys' heart-pounding action that we've come to expect from Daniel Silva. This, and the previous alone novel, The Order, also show us the heart and mind of the author, what most concerns him about what's happening in the world. The Order was about the rise of anti-Semitism and The Cellist was about Russia's campaign to undermine and defeat democracy in Western Europe and the United States from within by spreading misinformation, conspiracy theories and encouraging extremists to take up arms. I picked these reviews from the Good Reads website. All the sources are available in the description.