Daniel Silva. The Cellist. Harper, 2021.

“…The Russian president is not a statesman, Isabel. He is the godfather of a nuclear-armed gangster regime. They are not ordinary, run-of-the-mill gangsters. They are Russian gangsters, which means they are among the cruelest, most violent people on earth.” (324)

I could not think of a timelier quotation—yet this was written before the Ukraine invasion this week.

The Cellist follows a plot line similar to Silva’s The Black Widow. The difference is that the female recruited by Israeli intelligence—the cellist of the title—helps to bring down a Russian money laundering scheme. She is recruited after a Russian living in England is poisoned. Isabel had worked for Rhine Bank in a division informally known as the Russian Laundromat until the news following the poisoning of the ex-pat Russian in England points to this division, and she loses her job.

Unlike Natalie, the heroine of The Black Widow, Isabel does not have to conceal her identity. She simply has to conceal the fact that she is helping bring down the money laundering scheme instead of promoting it. That is easier said than done when working with high-ranking Russians. Indeed, she gets in serious trouble when the Russian president appears in the tale. By the way, Natalie has a cameo here.

Israeli intelligence chief Gabriel Allon and Isabel, with the help of French, German, and Swiss intelligence services, they bring down at least one significant portion of the overseas investments of Russian politicians and oligarchs. Instead of infiltrating ISIS like Natalie, Isabel joins an ESG investor of questionable ethics whom the media seem to approve because he checks the correct “green” boxes. (ESG stands for Environmental, Governance, and Social corporate philosophy.)

To this reader, the most entertaining part is not so much the plot, but the plot sidelines. Allon gets involved in part because he is an art restorer and someone has discovered that an unattributed Renaissance painting is likely the work of Artemesia Gentileschi, the most famous female Renaissance artist. Isabel is able to get connected because she is a skilled cellist who accompanies a world-renowned violinist at an affair at a Covid-restricted art gallery.

This is set during the time of Covid and the American elections, so Silva does include quite a bit of extraneous commentary about President Trump. Also in the novel, the “Q” behind QAnon is a Russian intelligence operative assigned to stir up discord in the United States.

Silva suggests that the accession of Putin to his position in Russia was backed by what had been the KGB. That was a long game that, perhaps, did not take as long as anticipated. Even more relevantly this week with the Ukraine invasion, Silva notes in several places that Putin is motivated by revenge. Vladimir Vladimirovich believes Russia had been mistreated by the rest of the world and wants to get even. (Was it an American or Western European who said, “We will bury you”?)

The plot of The Cellist reminded this reader of Tom Clancy: Commander in Chief which involved a complicated money laundering scheme launched by Russian politicians. In the “Clancy” case, the money went through Luxembourg rather than Switzerland, but the theme of Russian money laundering can be a popular and dangerous element in contemporary espionage novels.