But Libya was not the only state sponsor of the IRA. The KGB also provided material support to the terrorists in an attempt to create mayhem in Great Britain and thus weaken the Atlantic alliance. Much has changed in the quarter century since the collapse of the Soviet Union, but fomenting discord within the Western alliance remains a primary goal of Russia under Vladimir Putin. Indeed, Putin would like nothing more than to see the complete collapse of NATO so he can reconstitute Russia’s lost empire without the meddlesome West standing in his way. Under his leadership, Russia is once again quietly funneling money to extreme political parties in Western Europe on both the left and the right. It seems Putin doesn’t care much about his friends’ politics, so long as they are opposed to the United States and see the world roughly as he does. Besides, Putin has no real politics of his own. He is a kleptocrat and has no philosophy other than the cynical exercise of power.
Gabriel Allon first matched wits with Russia in Moscow Rules, which was published in the summer of 2008, when Moscow was awash in oil revenues and critics of the Kremlin were being killed in the streets. Unfortunately, the novel proved to be prescient. Consider the Kremlin’s behavior of late. It has stood by a murderous client regime in Syria. It has agreed to sell sophisticated antiaircraft missiles to Iran. Crimea and eastern Ukraine are under Russian control. Nuclear-armed Russian bombers are buzzing NATO allies. Indeed, a pair of Russian bombers recently took a joyride down the English Channel with their transponders switched off, disrupting civil aviation for hours. As the West takes a budget ax to its defenses, the Red Army is modernizing at a furious pace. Putin has spoken openly about the use of tactical nuclear weapons to preserve his gains.
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond is rightfully alarmed by what he sees. In March 2015, he described Russia as “the single greatest threat” to Britain’s security. A month later, however, President Obama offered a sharply different view, dismissing Russia as a “regional power” that was acting out of weakness rather than strength. The implication is that, by invading Ukraine and snatching Crimea, Vladimir Putin is actually losing. If only it were so. Putin is winning, which means Ukraine is but a preview of coming attractions.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I AM INDEBTED TO MY WIFE, Jamie Gangel, who listened patiently while I worked through the twists and turns of The English Spy and expertly trimmed one hundred pages from the pile of paper I euphemistically referred to as my first draft. Without her constant support and remarkable attention to detail, my manuscript could not have been finished before its deadline. My debt to her is immeasurable, as is my love. Also, my children, Lily and Nicholas, were a constant source of inspiration throughout the writing year. I am in awe of their accomplishments.
Louis Toscano, my dear friend and longtime editor, made countless improvements to the novel, large and small. My eagle-eyed personal copy editor, Kathy Crosby, made certain the text was free of typographical and grammatical errors. Any mistakes that slipped through their formidable gauntlet are mine, not theirs.
It goes without saying that this book could not have been published without the support of my team at HarperCollins, but I shall say it anyway, for they are the best in the business. A special thanks to Jonathan Burnham, Brian Murray, Michael Morrison, Jennifer Barth, Josh Marwell, Tina Andreadis, Leslie Cohen, Leah Wasielewski, Robin Bilardello, Mark Ferguson, Kathy Schneider, Brenda Segel, Carolyn Bodkin, Doug Jones, Katie Ostrowka, Erin Wicks, Shawn Nicholls, Amy Baker, Mary Sasso, David Koral, and Leah Carlson-Stanisic. A heartfelt thanks as well to my legal team, Michael Gendler and Linda Rappaport, for their support and wise counsel.
I consulted hundreds of books, newspaper and magazine articles, and Web sites while preparing this manuscript, far too many to name here. I would be remiss, however, if I did not mention the extraordinary scholarship and reporting of Martin Dillon, Peter Taylor, Ken Connor, Mark Urban, John Mooney and Michael O’Toole, and Toby Harnden, author of the seminal study of the South Armagh Brigade.
Finally, this novel, like the previous fourteen books in the Gabriel Allon series, could not have been written without the assistance of David Bull. Unlike the fictitious Gabriel Allon, David truly is one of the finest art restorers in the world, and I am lucky to have him as a friend. If men such as David ran the world, my hero would live a very quiet life indeed. Perhaps he would have had a chance to restore that Caravaggio. And, doubtless, he would have asked David for advice before ever laying a finger on it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DANIEL SILVA IS THE AWARD-WINNING, number one 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, and The Heist. His books are published in more than thirty countries and are best sellers around the world. He serves on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council and lives in Florida with his wife, Jamie Gangel, and their two children, Lily and Nicholas.
www.danielsilvabooks.com
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ALSO BY DANIEL SILVA
The Heist
The English Girl
The Fallen Angel
Portrait of a Spy
The Rembrandt Affair
The Defector
Moscow Rules
The Secret Servant
The Messenger
Prince of Fire
A Death in Vienna
The Confessor
The English Assassin
The Kill Artist
The Marching Season
The Mark of the Assassin
The Unlikely Spy
CREDITS
Cover design by Robin Bilardello
Cover photograph © Peter Zelei / Getty Images
Map designed by Nick Springer
Flag illustration © charnsitr/Shutterstock, Inc.
COPYRIGHT
The English Spy is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents portrayed in the story are the product of the author’s imagination or have been used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.
THE ENGLISH SPY. Copyright © 2015 by Daniel Silva. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
ISBN: 978-0-06-232013-1
ISBN: 978-0-06-239064-6 (International Edition)
ISBN: 978-0-06-240304-9 (B&N Signed Edition)
ISBN: 978-0-06-241847-0 (BAM Signed Edition)
EPub Edition June 2015 ISBN 9780062320155
15 16 17 18 19 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Daniel Silva, The English Spy
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