Double Booked

Daniel Silva's master Israeli spy and assassin Gabriel Allon is living in Israel and working in his trade of choice, the restoration of great works of art. But when his former boss Ariel Shamron comes calling, he gets called back into his other trade, that of secret agent.

When a young Englishwoman goes missing on Corsica, it's news for a couple of weeks and then forgotten. But when England's prime minister receives notice that she is being held for ransom, he turns to his own clandestine service for help -- because he and the young woman were having an affair. One of the leader of that service, in turn, reaches out to Gabriel through Shamron, because the regular authorities have turned up nothing. Reluctantly, Gabriel agrees and then becomes more involved when the kidnappers demand he deliver the ransom. Naturally, a number of complications develop, and Gabriel must assemble his usual team of agents, hackers and covert operatives.

By this, the 13th Gabriel Allon novel, Silva has developed a familiar pattern. About midway through the book, Gabriel will need to assemble his equivalent of Jim Phelps' Impossible Mission task force to trick, connive, misdirect and subterfuge their way into an enemy organization, setting up a final violent confrontation which sometimes costs the good guys as much as it does the bad guys.

Even so, Silva can tell his story with considerable skill and his frequent linkage of Gabriel's current mission with one of the paintings he was restoring makes things interesting, as do the many variations he tosses into the mix. Airport book stores feature a lot of things that you might read just because they're there and you have little choice. But The English Girl, although fitting well with the theme of airport read, is one worth seeking out for its own sake, as are most of Silva's books.

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Fans of Randy Wayne White's "Doc Ford" series have been left a little stranded in recent outings, as Ford has put up a string of disconnected narratives, unnecessary quirks and whatnot, let Putnam slap it between two pieces of cardboard and a paper dust jacket, and sent it out to his readers.

With Gone, White tries his hand at a female lead, introducing us to Florida fishing guide Hannah Smith. Once upon a time Hannah had a private investigator license, so when she's asked by a wealthy client to find a missing woman, she agrees because the money is pretty good. Both her boating and fledgling investigator skills will be necessary to find the woman alive and, not incidentally, keep Hannah alive too.

White deserves kudos for giving something new a try, as well as for including a character for whom religious life is not only present but important.

But he deserves raspberries for the novel as a whole. Although it's a fairly straight-line narrative, White also spends time at first teasing and then revealing facts and incidents that really aren't that important. He also doesn't really do well at establishing his Hannah as a woman, rather than as a man with long hair who sometimes wear dresses.

Again, it's good to have hope -- in this case that White will cast off his blinders and return to the level he enjoyed when he was first writing the "Doc Ford" series, either in the original or with Hannah Smith.