Portrait of an Unknown Woman

Superb reading

Worth of price.

A letdown. Weak plot. Boring. Appears to be written by a ghost writer. I have all Mr. Silva's books and wait impatiently every year for the next book. Not anymore

Thoroughly enjoyed reading this. This is my second Gabriel Alon book and i now plan to finish the full series.

The twenty-second Gabriel Allon thriller in as many years, Portrait of an Unknown Woman by Daniel Silva finds the genius art restorer and Israeli intelligence legend—for the first time—leading a ‘normal’ life, far away from the nerve-racking, lethal world of espionage. Having retired as the head of ‘the Office’, Allon has moved to Venice for good with his young and beautiful wife Chiara and the school-going twins, Irene and Raphael. Chiara has taken up the management of a prestigious art restoration firm and Allon, until deemed ready to work by his wife and prospective boss, has nothing to do other than spending a quiet, soothing time taking leisurely walks around Venice and, the thing he most loves doing, painting.But his idyll is interrupted when his old friend, the London art dealer Julian Isherwood, appears one day with an intriguing story about the suspicious death of an elderly French woman who had requested Julian to meet her—in relation to an Old Master painting he has recently sold at a handsome price—before the meeting could take place. Allon decides that the matter needs investigation and soon gets drawn into a quagmire of forgery and financial fraud of gigantic scale, perpetrated by people who are prepared to do whatever it takes to keep the scheme going. Allon, arguably the best art restorer in the world and a spy of supreme prowess, devises an elaborate ruse—one which could get him and those he cares for killed if unsuccessful—to trap the unscrupulous ones and bring the empire of deception down.Portrait of an Unknown Woman—where Allon’s retirement does nothing to diminish the scope of his heroics—is certainly a worthy addition to this much-loved series. The taut plot traverses breath-taking locales in several countries, with a stellar cast of characters, each playing their part to perfection. Masterpieces of several great masters make their appearance all along the narrative, delighting and enchanting the reader. Silva expertly weaves together real-life incidents and a multitude of interesting facts about the world of art with his highly imaginative fiction, making it all the more enjoyable. The exciting action and the intelligent twists keep the pages flying from start to finish. But for a few places that need a little suspension of disbelief, which is par for the genre, Portrait of an Unknown Woman is a tremendous entertainer perfect for all thriller and art aficionados.Kudos to Daniel Silva for keeping the standard of this series consistently high for over two-plus decades!

Superb work just like all other books on the Gabriel Allon series...

My kindle crashes everytime I try to open this book!

I cant wait to get the book and read. The kindle version is corrupted and my kindle crashes everytime i open the e-book to read.

Bloody, brutal and probable. It is a fictional story of behind the scenes in the world of good versus evil. The warped and cruel minds of out of control psychotic consumed with materialistic greed and power. A glimpse into the underbelly of espionage and what sometimes has to be done just to keep the world marginally safer. Fast paced grim and gripping with the ever present tinge of personal grief this is a cracking story,

Silva is a consumate writer. You always feel drawn into the action and the story is filled with fact that are convincing as you read them. His characters, especially Allon and Shamron are beautifully drawn. And everything is read against the backdrop of the struggle that the young (unfashionable) state of Israel has had to survive against its enemies.

The twelfth commandment of the Israeli intelligence community is extremely simple: `We don't wave our guns around like gangsters and make idle threats. We draw our weapons in the field for one reason and one reason only...' And, in `The Defector', this results in a lot of bodies, generally Russian or their cronies, generally with an extremely neat hole drilled in their heads.Although `The Defector' is a self-contained thriller it's effectively a sequel to  Moscow Rules  with the same good guys and the same bad guys. Basically it's Gabriel Allon against the Russian gun-running thug (turned oligarch) Ivan Kharkov. And this time, Kharkov's wife plus her children, the defector himself and Chiara Zolli - Allon's beautiful Italian-born wife - are all heavily involved.To me the book is a less than effective sequel to `Moscow Rules'; the storyline is weak in places whilst the level of violence - even accepting that Ivan Kharkov and his cohorts are extremely unpleasant and extremely vicious - frequently veers towards the gratuitous. The political element brings into play the highest levels of the American, British and Russian authorities but, unfortunately, is less than credible.Fortunately the final section, involving a high degree of last-minute co-operation between Israeli intelligence and an elite group of Russian Alpha forces, helped restore my slightly dented faith in Daniel Silva.And, before you start on `The Defector', it's a good idea to read `Moscow Rules'. Moscow Rules

My review of Daniel Silva's previous novel,  Moscow Rules , criticised it for lacking a decent, satisfying ending. 'The Defector' provides that ending; although how satisfying it is remains slightly open to question.Picking up a few months after events in Moscow Rules (which you should definitely read before tackling The Defector), the book opens with the apparent 'redefection' back to Russia from London of Gregori Bulganov, the SVR colonel who aided Gabriel Allon's escape at the end of the previous novel. That event is the catalyst that propels Gabriel back into action and kicks off a plot that wraps up the many loose threads left dangling at the end of Moscow Rules.For those who haven't tackled a Silva novel before, or at least not one featuring Gabriel Allon, I would recommend going back and starting with  The Kill Artist . Those familiar with Silva's previous novels will find that The Defector has the author's usual mix of rapid paced, spare prose, accurate factual detail, solid characterisation and up-to-the-minute plotting. It helps that most of the characters on display have appeared in at least one or more of Silva's previous novels, giving both familiarity and some additional depth to even minor players. Equally the set up, with Allon and team going up against Russian oligarch Ivan Kharkov once more, is also a familiar one, which removes the need to spend time establishing the background to the plot and as a consequence The Defector hits the ground running and doesn't stop.The pace of the book doesn't detract from the intelligence of Silva's writing. This is a smart thriller that avoids cliches or easy deus ex machina resolutions. None of the characters are impervious supermen, even if they are well trained professionals, and things go wrong as much as they go right. This lends events an air of realism that is sometimes lacking from other books in this genre.The Defector isn't the perfect espionage thriller however. As with Moscow Rules a bravura first two third is followed by a less satisfying final act. After a great buildup as Gabriel and his team use every method at their disposal (some of them pretty gruesome and questionable) to achieve their aims, all with the clock ticking, lives on the line and tesnsion building, the big final showdown ends up being a bit of a damp squib. It is possibly a more realistic conclusion than Gabriel and friends achieving the perfect victory at the first attempt would have been, but its not very emotionally satisfying, even if everyone get's their deserved comeuppance in the end.I'm also not a big fan of Silva's attempts to provide insight into his characters' emotions. This is the area where his writing is weakest as it drifts too often into the realms of overwrought 'purple prose', cod-psychology and heavy handed metaphor. When Chiara started having dream sequences about lost children I felt the need to skip forward and after numerous books I understand that Gabriel is supposed to be a tortured, romantic hero; I don't need constant recaps of past events in Vienna or repeated emotionally charged visits to his crippled ex-wife to get this point.Still, none of these minor issues are enough to truly detract from the book's overall appeal. Some may find some of the more brutal action distasteful and I would not recommend the book to anyone who is squeamish or easily offended by scenes of torture, but for everyone else this is a great contemporary thriller that wraps up yet another chapter in the life of Gabriel Allon. Role on his next adventure,  Rembrandt affair, theMoscow RulesThe Kill ArtistRembrandt affair, the

There's a kind of rage behind Daniel Silva's highly paced contemporary thrillers: rage against the enemies of Israel, who are mostly Palestinian and al-Qaeda terrorists plotting outrages against Israel and her Western allies. In MOSCOW RULES and now in this follow-up THE DEFECTOR Silva has turned his rage against the 'New Russia', the Russia of ex-KGB oligarchs like Ivan Kharkov who traffics arms to any corner of the world where there is war or unrest. Sometimes he supplies both sides in a conflict.In the previous book Kharkov's plans were foiled by Israeli superspy Gabriel Allon, and his wife and children were 'liberated' to a new life in the US. Hot for vengeance Kharkov has Grigori Bulganov kidnapped, the defector who helped Allon defeat him; Bulganov is plucked off the streets of what Silva calls "the Russian city sometimes referred to as London" (it seems to be more than just our football clubs that are in thrall to the Russian zillionaires!). Then, in a more daring raid, Allon's wife Chiara is abducted from their villa in Umbria. 'The Office' (the name Silva uses for Mossad) sanctions a rescue; as usual the CIA and MI5 are roped in.His political and propaganda agenda notwithstanding, Silva writes rattling good thrillers. This is up there with his best, galloping from Tel Aviv and London to Washington and Moscow and places in between. There's a nail-chewing climax in a snowbound Russian dacha, followed by a chilling 'epilogue' designed to hammer home the message that the Israeli secret service is not only the world's smartest but also the most ruthless. "Utterly smart and totally ruthless" just about describes the kind of writer Daniel Silva is.[Reviewer is the author of SHAIKH-DOWN]