For international operative Gabriel Allon and his wife, Chiara, it was supposed to be the start of a pleasant weekend in London—but a pair of deadly bombings in Paris and Copenhagen have just occurred, and while walking toward Covent Garden, Gabriel notices a man he believes is about to carry out a third attack. Before Gabriel can draw his weapon, he is knocked to the pavement and can only watch … watch as the nightmare unfolds.
Haunted by his failure to stop the massacre of innocents, Gabriel returns to his isolated cottage in Cornwall until a summons brings him to Washington, and he is drawn into a confrontation with the new face of global terror. At the centre of the threat is an American born cleric in Yemen to whom Allah has granted “a beautiful and seductive tongue.” A gifted deceiver, who was once a paid CIA asset, the mastermind is plotting a new wave of attacks.
Gabriel and his team devise a daring plan to destroy the network of death from the inside, a gambit fraught with risk, both personal and professional, and to succeed, Gabriel must reach into his violent past.
Set against the disparate worlds of art and intelligence, Portrait of a Spy is a breathtaking portrait of courage in the face of unspeakable evil.
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I have been inhaling the Gabriel Allon series. Tom Clancy meets Joel Rosenberg with a heavy dash of art, international intrigue, and Europe.
Excellent as usual. Couldn’t put it down!
Silva does not disappoint. I heartily encourage readers to discover the entire series, from the beginning, to be able to savor the development of the characters, but the author provides enough background to enable a new reader to jump in and appreciate the characters and the unique story included in each volume.
In many ways, Daniel Silva has taken up the mantle of John LeCarre in the “realistic espionage” genre. He’s often praised by intel professionals for “getting it right”, both in his depiction of tradecraft and his emphasis on the primacy of analysis and information. Though marketed as thrillers, his novels are dominated by scenes of two to four people sitting in a room or car, talking; what action there is comes in short, highly contained bursts and occupies a tiny fraction of each book’s pages.
Portrait of a Spy is no exception to this. Incorporating ripped-from-the-headlines pieces of Anwar al-Awlaki’s CV, the 2010 Mabhouh hit in Dubai, and art-as-money-laundry, this story brings series hero Gabriel Allon back out of retirement (again) to lead a typically continent-hopping campaign against a partly-new, partly-old terrorist threat. Old alliances and rivalries are renewed, new alliances formed, and additional tragedies are heaped on characters who have already suffered much.
This outline — common to most installments of the series — doesn’t give you the flavor of what the reading experience is like. The paperback of Portrait is 500 pages long, and I finished it in a single day; that alone should tell you that Silva can keep things moving even when the subject is geopolitics or art restoration. The dialog and settings have a ring of authenticity missing in many conventional spy thrillers (there are few if any “oh, come on” moments). While the recurring supporting cast is drawn lightly here (having been introduced over multiple previous novels), the characters in general are people, and as such aren’t omniscient, omnicompetent, or immortal — a nice change. Silva’s voice is cool and, at times, distant, which may or may not work for you depending on how hot you like your prose.
The demands of a series lead to my only real cavil about this book. Allon has already seen more action than any five of his peers put together; he’s been pulled out of retirement at least twice (I haven’t read all the books in the series yet) and it appears that every intelligence agency in the world knows who he is and what he looks like. This would seem to limit his usefulness for covert action, yet still he soldiers on. Is the Office’s recruitment program really so ineffective? Isn’t it time for the poor man to be left in peace and for someone else to take up the Office’s dirty work? Perhaps Silva should give in to Shamron’s urging and have Allon become head of the Office, and use that promotion to introduce us to new field operatives who can continue the series without allowing it to devolve into self-parody or repetition.
Daniel Silva’s books are always a good read. I cannot put them down. And he provides good insight into the middle east conflict.
I enjoy the characters that Silva has created.
Couldn’t stop till I read the whole series.
I love Daniel Silva.
A great page turner!
I love all of Daniel Silva’s book.
I am a Daniel Silva ( Gabriel Allon ) FAN!
Eargerly look forward to next book!
Like all the Silva books I read, characters I care about, fast-moving story, and I learned a lot about art as well as enjoying the skycraft. Also glad to see exciting female characters.