Dear Great Book Guru,  With all the Thanksgiving weekend festivities , I know it’s going to be hard to find time to read but winter is coming soon . So my question is- do you have a good series I can begin that will take me through the cold dark months ahead?  Thankful for a Good Book

Dear Thankful,  I have begun a great fifteen book series that Dan DiPietro introduced me to a few weeks ago: Daniel Silva’s Gabriel Allon .  Gabriel Allon is an Israeli art restorer who travels around the world- quite reluctantly as a spy and sometime assassin.    Each novel deals with a work of art that Gabriel is painstakingly restoring while involved in deadly subterfuge in a brutally unforgiving world.  The series’ recurring  characters are Allon’s  fellow spies all connected to  “The Office”- the Israeli secret intelligence agency. His assignments take him to the capitals of Europe,  and frequently involve Russian counter espionage and Islamic terrorism.  The most fascinating thing I have found about this series is how prescient Silva is about world politics. Events presently unfolding in   Paris, Turkey, Egypt, and Russia have all been foretold in Silva’s novels.   His first book is THE KILL ARTIST and is set in England where the brooding Allon is restoring a Renaissance masterpiece.  He is brought into a deadly fray by his spymaster who reminds him of evils that must be revenged.  A thriller but so much more-  highly recommended!