Portrait of an Unknown Woman by Daniel Silva

Daniel Silva has done it again There are 24 novels (if I counted correctly) in the Gabriel Allon series, all of which have been reviewed in this blog, all of which I’ve loved. The sad part of finishing the latest novel is that I have to wait another year until the next one is published. If you’ve not yet read Silva, then you have a big stack of books that will entertain you and hold your interest for a long time. Start with The Mark of The Assassin, written in 1998. The new story, Portrait of an Unknown  Woman, is a bit different because Allon has retired as the head of the Office, the master spy/assassination branch of Israeli intelligence. Over the years, we’ve seen him move from a super agent doing nearly impossible acts of espionage, and then reluctantly advancing into the administration. But in the current book, he has become a civilian again. 

 

Previously, for the Office, Allon used his artistic talents as a cover for his being in place to do his deeds for Israel, and in this book, he continues as an artist who entered the world of art forgery for the purpose of exposing a scheme to flood the world with fake masterpieces. Some fakes were already hanging in prestigious museums and were selling at outrages prices. For people who had purchased such paintings, they had a stake in the forgery scheme not being exposed or their alleged multi-million dollar paintings would have been exposed as worthless.

 

Silva brings the usual cast of characters although we read more about his family since they’ve moved from Jerusalem to Venice, the home of his wife, Chiari. Julian Isherwood and his gallery are central to Allon’s plans. Of course there are new characters who are introduced to fill out the plot and subplots. I don’t intend to write about the plot, so the book will just provide you with the intended surprises. As usual, Silva, my favorite writer, gets a 5/5 rating from me.

 

WCD

P.S. I read this book more than three years ago (now 11/9/25), and when I ran out of new audiobooks while out of the country and unable to download new ones, I listened to this one again. I may have liked it even more than the last time. Silva is a master.