Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This book is self-indulgent to the point of being masturbatory. The author is far more interested in bashing Donald Trump than in writing a compelling story. The characters have changed so little over the course of his Allon novels that, by this latest episode, they've become caricatures of themselves. They are (re-)introduced in a manner reminiscent of the Hardy Boy novels. The worst of it is Mr. Silva seems to be worried that his pro-Israel stance is going to alienate the Washington elite he's so fond of. To avoid that, he attacks Trump repeatedly (though never by name, depriving Trump of a chance to defend himself) and perpetuates the myth that Trump was pro-Russia (ignoring the fact that Biden just put billions directly into Putin's pocket by greenlighting the Nord Stream pipeline, which Trump had stopped). His hatred for Trump leads him to logical absurdities, such as having the novel's head of the CIA admit he misleads the President in the daily intelligence brief and, in the same breath, he ridicules the President for not reading his daily intelligence brief!) Mr. Silva usually burnishes his Washington elite credentials by savaging Catholics. His list of people he feels the need to prove he hates is growing. He's entitled to his hatreds, of course, but it interferes with having a credible plot.