The English AssassinThe English Assassin
Title rated 4.05 out of 5 stars, based on 248 ratings(248 ratings)
Sent to Zurich, Switzerland, to restore a painting owned by a reclusive millionaire banker, art expert and sometime Israeli agent Gabriel Allon discovers his would-be employer murdered and a priceless collection of illicitly gained masterpieces missing and finds himself back in the espionage game, tangling with a rogue assassin he had trained. 150,000 first printing.
Sent to Zurich, Switzerland, to restore a painting owned by a reclusive millionaire banker, art expert and sometime Israeli agent Gabriel Allon discovers his would-be employer murdered and finds himself back in the espionage game.
Gabriel Allon had done much in his lifetime. A sometime Israeli spy by trade, an art restorer by preference, he knew more than he wanted to know about death and betrayal and secrets, but that didn't keep him from being surprised by the scene before him now.
An assignment to clean an Old Master at the home of a millionaire banker had led him to a house in Zurich, and standing in the room now, he smelled the odor of salt and rust, felt the dampness of the carpet beneath his feet. He touched his fingers to the carpet and brought them to his face. He was standing in blood. And he knew his life would never be the same.
Before he is through, Allon will find himself swept into a spiraling chain of events involving stolen art, a decades-old suicide, and a dark and bloody trail of killings - some of them his own. The spy world he thought he had put aside will envelope him once again. And he will battle for his life against the assassin he himself helped train, and who will demonstrate to his teacher just how much he has learned.
The Unlikely Spy, Daniel Silva's extraordinary debut novel, was applauded by critics as it rocketed onto national bestseller lists. "Briskly suspenseful, tightly constructed . . . reminiscent of John le Carré's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold," said The New York Times. "Silva has clearly done his homework, mixing fact and fiction to delicious effect and building tension-with the breathtaking double and triple turns of plot-like a seasoned pro," praised People.
Now Silva has outdone himself, with a taut, lightning-paced thriller rooted assuredly in fact: Switzerland's shameful WWII record of profiteering and collaboration with Nazi Germany. When art restorer and occasional Israeli agent Gabriel Allon is sent to Zurich, Switzerland, to restore the painting of a reclusive millionaire banker, he arrives to find his would-be employer murdered at the foot of his Raphael. A secret collection of priceless, illicitly gained Impressionist masterpieces is missing. Gabriel's handlers step out of the shadows to admit the truth-the collector had been silenced-and Gabriel is put back in the high-stakes spy game, battling wits with the rogue assassin he helped to train.
Tense, taut, expertly crafted, and brimming with unexpected reversals, The English Assassin is Daniel Silva at his storytelling best.
Sent to Zurich, Switzerland, to restore a painting owned by a reclusive millionaire banker, art expert and sometime Israeli agent Gabriel Allon discovers his would-be employer murdered and finds himself back in the espionage game.
Gabriel Allon had done much in his lifetime. A sometime Israeli spy by trade, an art restorer by preference, he knew more than he wanted to know about death and betrayal and secrets, but that didn't keep him from being surprised by the scene before him now.
An assignment to clean an Old Master at the home of a millionaire banker had led him to a house in Zurich, and standing in the room now, he smelled the odor of salt and rust, felt the dampness of the carpet beneath his feet. He touched his fingers to the carpet and brought them to his face. He was standing in blood. And he knew his life would never be the same.
Before he is through, Allon will find himself swept into a spiraling chain of events involving stolen art, a decades-old suicide, and a dark and bloody trail of killings - some of them his own. The spy world he thought he had put aside will envelope him once again. And he will battle for his life against the assassin he himself helped train, and who will demonstrate to his teacher just how much he has learned.
The Unlikely Spy, Daniel Silva's extraordinary debut novel, was applauded by critics as it rocketed onto national bestseller lists. "Briskly suspenseful, tightly constructed . . . reminiscent of John le Carré's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold," said The New York Times. "Silva has clearly done his homework, mixing fact and fiction to delicious effect and building tension-with the breathtaking double and triple turns of plot-like a seasoned pro," praised People.
Now Silva has outdone himself, with a taut, lightning-paced thriller rooted assuredly in fact: Switzerland's shameful WWII record of profiteering and collaboration with Nazi Germany. When art restorer and occasional Israeli agent Gabriel Allon is sent to Zurich, Switzerland, to restore the painting of a reclusive millionaire banker, he arrives to find his would-be employer murdered at the foot of his Raphael. A secret collection of priceless, illicitly gained Impressionist masterpieces is missing. Gabriel's handlers step out of the shadows to admit the truth-the collector had been silenced-and Gabriel is put back in the high-stakes spy game, battling wits with the rogue assassin he helped to train.
Tense, taut, expertly crafted, and brimming with unexpected reversals, The English Assassin is Daniel Silva at his storytelling best.
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- New York : Putnam's, 2002.
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