Portrait of an Unknown Woman (Gabriel Allon Series #22)

by Daniel Silva Narrated by Edoardo Ballerini

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Baldacci’s beloved character Gabriel Allon makes a return in Portrait of an Unknown Woman, this time living out his retired dream in beautiful Venice. When an art forger whose fakes are nearly indistinguishable from the real paintings, Allon paints himself right back into the investigative scene.

In a spellbinding new masterpiece by #1 New York Times bestselling author Daniel Silva, Gabriel Allon undertakes a high-stakes search for the greatest art forger who ever lived

Legendary spy and art restorer Gabriel Allon has at long last severed ties with Israeli intelligence and settled quietly in Venice, the only place where he has ever truly known peace. His beautiful wife, Chiara, has taken over the day-to-day management of the Tiepolo Restoration Company, and their two young children are discreetly enrolled in a neighborhood scuola elementare. For his part, Gabriel spends his days wandering the streets and canals of the watery city, bidding farewell to the demons of his tragic, violent past.

But when the eccentric London art dealer Julian Isherwood asks Gabriel to investigate the circumstances surrounding the rediscovery and lucrative sale of a centuries-old painting, he is drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse where nothing is as it seems.

Gabriel soon discovers that the work in question, a portrait of an unidentified woman attributed to Sir Anthony van Dyck, is almost certainly a fiendishly clever fake. To find the mysterious figure who painted it-and uncover a multibillion-dollar fraud at the pinnacle of the art world-Gabriel conceives one of the most elaborate deceptions of his career. If it is to succeed, he must become the very mirror image of the man he seeks: the greatest art forger the world has ever known.

Stylish, sophisticated, and ingeniously plotted, Portrait of an Unknown Woman is a wildly entertaining journey through the dark side of the art world-a place where unscrupulous dealers routinely deceive their customers and deep-pocketed investors treat great paintings as though they were just another asset class to be bought and sold at a profit. From its elegant opening to the shocking twists of its climax, the novel is a tour de force of storytelling and one of the finest pieces of heist fiction ever written. And it is still more proof that, when it comes to international intrigue and suspense, Daniel Silva has no equal.

Editorial Reviews

JULY 2022 - AudioFile

Narrator Edoardo Ballerini returns to perform the 22nd addition to the Gabriel Allon series. The retired legendary spymaster Allon is now living in Venice, enjoying family life. At the request of a friend, Allon investigates the mystery behind a supposed masterpiece and is drawn into the dark, lucrative side of the art world. Ballerini demonstrates his talent for accents as Allon’s adventures take him through Europe and to the U.S. Ballerini smoothly pronounces foreign place names, shifts accents, and conveys the many nationalities. He skillfully voices Allon’s talented and seductive female partners and adversaries. While fans may miss the high tension of the spy business, they will find that Silva’s storytelling paired with Ballerini’s performance makes for a wonderful listening experience. E.Q. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

From the Publisher

"Reading the latest Gabriel Allon is like visiting an old friend. Another tour de force by the master." — Bob Woodward

“Silva can really write. The bastard.”  — James Patterson

"A smart summer escape." — Kirkus, starred review

“The scheme is a doozy, but the real draw here is the meticulously detailed look at the art of the forger.” — Booklist, starred review

“Few reading experiences bring me more joy than opening up the new Gabriel Allon novel every summer.”  — CrimeReads

"Silva always turns out a masterpiece." — Oklahoma City Friday

CrimeReads

Few reading experiences bring me more joy than opening up the new Gabriel Allon novel every summer.” 

Library Journal

02/01/2022

Here's more international intrigue from the No. 1 New York Times best-selling Silva; with a 500,000-copy first printing.

JULY 2022 - AudioFile

Narrator Edoardo Ballerini returns to perform the 22nd addition to the Gabriel Allon series. The retired legendary spymaster Allon is now living in Venice, enjoying family life. At the request of a friend, Allon investigates the mystery behind a supposed masterpiece and is drawn into the dark, lucrative side of the art world. Ballerini demonstrates his talent for accents as Allon’s adventures take him through Europe and to the U.S. Ballerini smoothly pronounces foreign place names, shifts accents, and conveys the many nationalities. He skillfully voices Allon’s talented and seductive female partners and adversaries. While fans may miss the high tension of the spy business, they will find that Silva’s storytelling paired with Ballerini’s performance makes for a wonderful listening experience. E.Q. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2022-07-19
Silva’s latest Gabriel Allon novel is a bit of a throwback—in the best possible way.

One-time assassin and legendary spymaster Gabriel Allon has finally retired. After saying farewell to his friends and colleagues in Israel, he moves with his wife, Chiara, and their two young children to a piano nobile overlooking Venice’s Grand Canal. His plan is to return to the workshop where he learned to restore paintings as an employee—but only after he spends several weeks recovering from the bullet wound that left him dead for several minutes in The Cellist(2021). Of course, no one expects Gabriel to entirely withdraw from the field, and, sure enough, a call from his friend and occasional asset Julian Isherwood sends him racing around the globe on the trail of art forgers who are willing to kill to protect their extremely lucrative enterprise. Silva provides plenty of thrills and, as usual, offers a glimpse into the lifestyles of the outrageously wealthy. In the early books in this series, it was Gabriel’s work as an art restorer that set him apart from other action heroes, and his return to that world is the most rewarding part of this installment. It is true that, at this point in his storied career, Gabriel has become a nearly mythic figure. And Silva is counting on a lot of love—and willing suspension of disbelief—when Gabriel whips up four old master canvases that fool the world’s leading art experts as a lure for the syndicate selling fake paintings. That said, as Silva explains in an author’s note, the art market is rife with secrecy, subterfuge, and wishful thinking, in no small part because it is almost entirely unregulated. And, if anyone can crank out a Titian, a Tintoretto, a Gentileschi, and a Veronese in a matter of days, it’s Gabriel Allon. The author’s longtime fans may breathe a sigh of relief that this entry is relatively free of politics and the pandemic is nowhere in sight.

A smart summer escape.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940176289329
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	07/19/2022
Series:	Gabriel Allon Series
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	830,770

Videos