About the Author

Daniel Silva is the bestselling author of The Unlikely Spy, The Mark of the Assassin, The Marching Season, The Kill Artist, The English Assassin, The Confessor, A Death in Vienna, Price of Fire, The Messenger, The Secret Servant,Moscow Rules and The Defector. He lives in Washington, DC, with his wife, NBC News Today correspondent Jamie Gangel, and their two children, Lily and Nicholas.

Reviews

"Abundant action."--The Washington Post
"A cloak-and-dagger tale [that] moves at a brisk clip, with clean, lucid exposition and characters who are thoughtfully drawn."--The New York Times
"The plot is rich, multilayered and compelling with issues as timely as the daily headlines and problems as old as humankind...Silva maintains tension and suspense."--The Denver Post
"Enthralling...a thriller that entertains as well as enlightens."--The Orlando Sentinel
"Smooth and compelling."--Detroit Free Press
"Silva's sophisticated treatment, polished prose, an edgy mood, and convincing research give his plot a crisp, almost urgent quality."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Silva knows how to plot...[he] will draw you in--and you'll learn something at the same time."--Rocky Mountain News
"Thrilling...a good, cinematic story."--St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"In the style of authors like Frederick Forsyth and Ken Follett, this is a book that opens with a scene that grabs your attention and never lets go...highly imaginative fiction set against a nonfiction background...you will want to read this one straight through once you've started."--New York Law Journal
"Cleverly crafted...engrossing...an intelligent thriller of the old school and one that will satisfy Silva's fans and earn him many new ones."--Chattanooga Times/Chattanooga News-Free Press
"Silva, who writes with the atmospheric grace and whiplash tension of le Carre, brings something special to the spy thriller: a multifaceted, believable hero whose sideline, spying, is only as intriguing as his regular job, restoring Old Masters....[Allon's] investigation leads to the English assassin, a rogue terrorist whose casual killings (his send-off gift to his lovers is explosives in their luggage) are breathtakingly orchestrated. Silva makes a stunning contribution to the spy thriller."--Booklist (starred review)
"The spy novel is ali

Switzerland's shameful behavior in WWII provides the backdrop for this superbly crafted thriller that puts Silva at the forefront of his generation of foreign intrigue specialists. Here, the former CNN correspondent also appears to have settled on a main character to propel his promising line Gabriel Allon, the art restorer and Israeli hit man who starred in last year's acclaimed The Kill Artist. Just a few pages into this sequel, Allon finds himself the apparent victim of a double cross. When he arrives to restore a Raphael owned by reclusive Swiss banker Augustus Rolfe, Allon not only discovers the banker dead but finds himself the number one suspect. The charge doesn't stick, however, and when he is released from custody, he vows to find out who tried to frame him. His first stop is Rolfe's daughter, Anna, one of the world's top violinists and a woman haunted by her family's heritage of wartime greed and cruelty. Allon catches the attention of Switzerland's secretive power structure, which intends to stymie any further investigation into Rolfe's murder and the theft of his suspiciously acquired art collection. The so-called Council of Rutli contracts with a shadowy hit man, known only as the Englishman, to eliminate Allon and anyone else who threatens to expose Switzerland's past. The action unfolds in tightly focused scenes played out across a spectrum of European capitals and more pastoral settings. As a historical framework, the secrets of the Bahnhofstrasse are well-trod territory, yet Silva's sophisticated treatment polished prose, an edgy mood, convincing research gives his plot a crisp, almost urgent quality. Agent, Esther Newberg of ICM. 100,000 first printing; $100,000 national advertising campaign. (Mar. 4) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.