The Messenger - Daniel Silva

Often I don't like these espionage or historical artifact thrillers because the writing is bad, or the characters cardboard.  This is was definitely not the case with Daniel Silva's latest Gabriel Allon thriller, The Messenger.  This was my first Silva book, and I really liked the characters - an Israeli government spy who does art restoration in his spare time was a definite improvement over the characters I've been reading lately, and the story is well-written and well-planned.  It's nice to have another series I can start reading the prior books of - I've exhausted my other favorite, Steve Berry.