ISRAELI superspy/hitman Gabriel Allon brought down the most dangerous man in the world – Russian arms dealer Ivan Kharkov, a man planning to sell deadly weapons to Al-Qaeda. Several months later, Gabriel is recovering from the serious injuries he suffered

ISRAELI superspy/hitman Gabriel Allon brought down the most dangerous man in the world - Russian arms dealer Ivan Kharkov, a man planning to sell deadly weapons to Al-Qaeda.

Several months later, Gabriel is recovering from the serious injuries he suffered during that mission and, newly married, he is considering quitting his intelligence work and concentrating full-time on his first love - restoring works of art.

But then the Russian defector who saved his life disappears from a London street. And, even worse, Gabriel's new wife is abducted.

Kharkov is seeking bloody revenge, plunging our hero into a deadly duel of wits, which will take him from London to Lake Como, Geneva, Zurich and rural Russia.

Gabriel is helped by his regular Israeli team, plus his usual international accomplices from MI6 and the CIA, but this time it's much more personal and his life will never be the same.

The Defector (�18.99, Michael Joseph) is Daniel Silva's follow-up to Moscow Rules - another thrill-a-minute adventure by the natural successor to John Le Carre and Ian Fleming. But it's all getting a bit repetitive.

The character is a brilliant invention - the former Mossad hitman who killed six of the 12 members of Black September, who kidnapped and killed Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympics. Spending his time between missions in Italy as one of the world's foremost art restorers, he is friends with the Pope. He also has a suitably tragic past.

But this is the ninth in the Allon series and the plots are beginning to seem very familiar. Possibly it will be more enjoyable for those who have not read a previous Gabriel Allon book.

Film rights have been sold to the makers of the Jason Bourne films.

- LINDSAY JONES