I confess to being a readaholic who has posted on here often about my favorite authors (Vince Flynn, David Baldacci, Lee Child, Robert Crais, Preston and Child, etc.) and have urged other readers of same genre to give Daniel Silva a shot. Silva is one of my favorite authors, right up there with the original Flynn novels.
Well, Silva has sold his rights to MGM for his Gabriel Allon novels which should rank right up there with the release of Flynn's first movie based on Mitch Rapp's adventures.
Shout out to whoever told me about Tom Wood's "Victor the Assassin" series. I started reading them in order starting with "The Killer" by Tom Hinshelwood, later rebranded as "The Hunter" by Tom Wood. To whoever it was that turned me on to his writings, a big thank you.
Not sure what MGM plans are for the Gabriel Allon series, but it appears it will be made into an ongoing television show rather than a movie.
Link provided
MGM Acquires rights to Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon Spy Novels - (
New Window )
Also check out the Dewey Andreas series by Ben Coes.
Also check out the Dewey Andreas series by Ben Coes.
Thanks again. I haven't read all of them obviously, but read the first one. I'm now into "The Fix" by Baldacci, with several books in queue ("Orphan X", by Gregg Hurwitz, "The Executioner", by Dick Wolf, "The Cutthroat", by Justin Scott under Cussler's name, and "The Quest", by Nelson DeMille). I've ordered "Bad Luck in Berlin" by Wood to add to my queue.
My eyes are bad so I buy the books in hardcover. Just can't seem to find it in me to switch to Kindle or reading on line. I love turning pages and the smell of the book.
I will give Coes a shot as well. Thanks for another tip.
so, mavric, having raised the notion, if you were casting Gabriel Allon, who would you select? A Ben Affleck type?
so, mavric, having raised the notion, if you were casting Gabriel Allon, who would you select? A Ben Affleck type?
There's an Israeli actor who used to show up on the show "Covert Affairs" (with CIA trainee Annie Walker - aka Piper Perabo) and bail her out of impossible to get out of situations. Interestingly, I've seen him show up on "Blacklist" and bail out CIA agent Samar (Mozhan Marnò). His name is Oded Fehr (who also played in "The Mummy" and "The Mummy Returns"). Off the top of my head, I think he'd fit the bill quite nicely.
He'd probably do okay. I tend to think of Gabriel as an Israeli (which Oded is), so I automatically am drawn to the darker hair and skin. But like so many characters in books, we all have our unique picture in our brains of what the guy should look like.
re. Shamron, yeah, no accident you conjure Ariel Sharon, and B, that's not a bad start, and Ackland has me racking my brain for another visage, maybe Jim Broadbent, if makeup gave him a more prominent nose?
Then there is Gabriel's wife, lot of room to fantasize there
Check out Maek GreaneyGreany and his "Gray Man" novels. An absolutely fantastic series.
re. Shamron, yeah, no accident you conjure Ariel Sharon, and B, that's not a bad start, and Ackland has me racking my brain for another visage, maybe Jim Broadbent, if makeup gave him a more prominent nose?
Then there is Gabriel's wife, lot of room to fantasize there
I think that if you only envision Fehr in his role in "The Mummy", you don't see a soft and introspective side that he does well in "Covert Affairs". In that show (I think it ran for 5 years or so), Piper Perabo (Annie) is a CIA agent who gets into all kinds of trouble because she isn't afraid to go anywhere or get into any undercover job in places all over the world.
Oded Fehr (Eyal) is with Mossad. He and Annie cross paths on a job somewhere in a strange land and befriend each other, but it's strictly business (at least at first). On the other hand, she cannot let the CIA find out that she knows him or at times works with him on her jobs - and likewise, he can't let on to Mossad that he's tight with a CIA agent. Plus, she is already in a relationship with a guy (who is blind, but sees all from other senses) named Auggie (an Army special forces guy who was blinded on a mission). So their relationship is on the low down.
Regardless, I only bring this up to show that even though he plays a cold blooded ruthless killer, he is also tender and thoughtful as you can see in the clip. Well...I mean as an actor, he can pull it off IMHO. Check out the video of him on the link provided. He was actually a minor player in the show and rarely showed up, but always seem to come out of nowhere when Annie was in over her head. They eventually slept together, but did not have a full blown love affair (on the show anyway). I got a kick out of him showing up on the Blacklist in almost the same role as he played in Covert Affairs.
Annie (CIA) and Eyal (Mossad) scenes - ( New Window )
Check out Maek GreaneyGreany and his "Gray Man" novels. An absolutely fantastic series.
I will add this to my list of authors to check out. I have my favorites, but probably like yourself, have read every one of their books so I pre-order them and the wait seems like forever when their next book is released.
I live in a small town that has a nice library and they love me when I bring in a box of books from popular authors. I'll certainly give this Greany a try.
He looks like he could work. The sun spots all over his head are perfect. Never seen him act (as far as I know), but he has the look.
mavric, good 4:54 post, tnks
I envision Ari Shamron as a bit corpulent, a face not unlike Ackland's, perhaps, but more hanging jowls, balding, and a white fringe around a rotund face (as well as rotund body), and a deep, gurgling voice
mavric, good 4:54 post, tnks
I envision Ari Shamron as a bit corpulent, a face not unlike Ackland's, perhaps, but more hanging jowls, balding, and a white fringe around a rotund face (as well as rotund body), and a deep, gurgling voice
Your mental picture of Shamron is pretty much exactly how I've always pictured him. And old run down and worn out warrior, hair white and messy, heavy (corpulent is perfect), gruffy looking with some jowls, very deep gritty voice, ill-health, and always smoking with a nagging wife telling him to quit smoking, loving family man. For the life of me I can't think of a single actor who could nail down that role. I know, let's get Tom Cruise in this movie...(sarcasm if you missed it)...just thinking like Hollywood people...lol
One of the reasons I like Silva's writings is because I have spent a fair amount of time in Europe and a lot of time in Israel. My sister moved to Zichron Yaakov about 20 years ago so I go over to visit her and her family every once in awhile. I'm adventurous and have to get to know everything about a country when I've got the time, which fortunately I have had much time. I've explored the entire country from top to bottom drinking coffee in backrooms with Arabs in Nazereth, watching soccer games in Acre, hanging out on the beach by the viaducts in Caesarea, scuba diving in the Red Sea while staying in Eilat, doing the old city of Jerusalem and going through the tunnels, searching for the best Falafel in the country (BTW, best I found was in Haifa), listening to bombs go off in Syria while standing on the border in the Golan Heights, etc. So Silva's writings take on a whole different perspective for me because I can visualize the actual places that tend to be in the background of his writings and I can tell that he's actually been there by the details he adds to the story. And that adds an huge element of interest for me. Plus his characters are well designed and his writing has a nice flow to it.