Art restorer and sometime spy Gabriel Allon is asked to visit Zurich, to clean the work of an Old Master for a millionaire banker. But when he gets there he finds the corpse of his client in a pool of blood beneath the masterpiece, and discovers that a secret collection of priceless paintings - stolen by Nazis in the war - is missing. With the Swiss authorities trying to pin the murder on Allon and a powerful cabal determined to make sure this wartime secret remains buried, the art restorer must use all his former spy skills to find out the truth. And with an assassin that he helped to train also on the loose, Allon will need all his wits just to stay alive.

Accolades

Shortlisted for CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger 2006.

Review

"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.... 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, and edgy mood, convincing research -- gives his plot a crisp, almost urgent quality." Publishers Weekly

Author Biography

Daniel Silva is also the author of the bestselling thrillers The Unlikely Spy, The Mark of the Assassin, The Marching Season, The Kill Artist, The Confessor and A Death in Vienna. The Washington Post ranks him as 'among the best of the younger American spy novelists' and he is regularly compared to Graham Green and John Le Carre. He lives in Washington, DC. The English Assassin is the first novel in a trilogy (with The Confessor and A Death in Vienna) which deals with the various repercussions of the Holocaust. All three novels were New York Times top-five bestsellers.