Daniel Silva has few rivals in the realm of the big blockbuster spy story. His series about art restorer and Israeli spy, Gabriel  Allon, has garnered a host of fans around the world. The Heist involves Allon in the search for Caravaggio's missing masterpiece Nativity With St Francis and St Lawrence in order to clear a friend of a murder charge.  In usual Silva fashion, the action moves smoothly from Lake Como to Marseilles and Corsica and to a final resolution in Venice.  The locations and the art history are convincing and the plotting is typically complex and interesting. Apart from the occasional slow patch it makes for an enjoyable read for a lazy weekend.

THE BLOOD WHISPERS
By John Gordon Sinclair.  Faber.  354pp.  $29.99

This is a very tough and violent thriller by the author of 2012's blood-drenched Seventy Times Seven. Kaltrina Dervishi is a prostitute on the run from Serbian gang leader Fisnik Abazi.  When Glasgow lawyer Keira Lynch takes on her case she does not realise that it has potential international implications and that some powerful people are determined that Dervishi never testifies against her former boss.  Keira, however, has some very dark secrets of her own and she is not someone that bows to pressure.  This is a fast moving and exciting novel that quickly races through a number of twists and turns to an exciting, if morally ambiguous, conclusion that also raises the prospect of an interesting sequel. 

ACT OF WAR
By Brad Thor.  Simon & Schuster.  358pp.  $29.99

Brad Thor has taken over from the late Tom Clancy as the leading writer of patriotic American fiction.  His muscular technological thrillers take place in a simplistic right-wing world where the only good terrorist is a dead terrorist: "As far as Harvath was concerned, America and its allies couldn't kill these people fast enough." The action in Act Of War revolves around a Chinese plot to use Muslim terrorists to launch attacks on American soil.  Covert counterterrorism expert Scott Harvath is given the task of stopping them, using any means necessary. If you can ignore the patriotic rhetoric, this is a solid thriller that competently goes through its paces and provides some well-researched action scenes.