Daniel Silva’s latest novel isn’t just one of the best books to his stores this summer, it’s one of the most timely thrillers in recent memory. Without spoiling the story, Silva puts his series protagonist, Gabriel Allon, up against The Islamic State.
What makes Silva’s fictional tale so timely, then? For starters, the author wrote about an attack in ISIS attacking France long before the real-life attacks that took place in Brussels and Molenbeek.
Silva, one of the best authors on the planet, and quite possibly the best novelist of his time, went on Hugh Hewitt’s (who is one of today’s best interviewers, in my humble opinion) radio show on July 4th to talk about his new book, The Black Widow, which comes out on Tuesday, July 12th.
Scroll down to listen to the full interview, which runs just under one hour long. Or you can click here to read a full transcript of the interview. Most importantly, go here to pre-order your copy of The Black Widow today!
http://app.stitcher.com/splayer/f/32978/45195142
Among some of the things that I found interesting, Silva had this to say about his star protagonist, Gabriell Alon:
“The central character of this series was never supposed to be the central character of a series. And it’s important to keep that in mind, that he was supposed to appear in one book, and one book only.”
He then continued on to say “he was going to be in The Kill Artist, and that was going to be it. And I was talked into writing a second book (The English Assassin), and that book sold a lot more than the first book. And I actually had to be talked into writing the next book as well. And then by the time I finished that book, The Confessor, which is sort of considered a little minor classic, I knew that I had a series on my hands.”
That’s incredible! So, for those of us who didn’t know, Gabriel Allon was very nearly a one hit wonder. How incredibly sad that would have been! Thank heavens, someone, whoever it was, talked Mr. Silva into writing a second and third book before he realized he had a great series.
For the record, and just to show Silva’s brilliance, it was in his second book (a book he had to be talked into writing) that he created the character of Christopher Keller. Keller, of course, returned to play a big role in Silva’s last three novels, The English Girl, The Heist, and The English Spy.
Special thanks to Hugh Hewitt for conducting a terrific, informative interview. If you’re not reading Daniel Silva, start!