Editorial Content for Before Versailles: A Novel of Louis XIV
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
I've always had a soft spot for the antics of the French court --- even more so than the English courts --- and I'm the type of person who can't turn down a story about the Tudors. In books revolving around the monarchy, whether French or English, one can't have a story without a mistress. Let's face it, that's what makes the story. Isn't that why these books are so much fun? Oh it is, and Karleen Koen doesn't disappoint. Read More
Promo
Karleen Koen takes us back to a place and time where King Louis XIV was just beginning to establish the strength and wealth of his kingdom --- despite the many forces against him.
Content for Portrait of a Spy
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
In the spy world, if you have a tough job, you turn to Gabriel Allon, agent of the Israeli secret service known familiarly as the Office. In the art world, you turn to Giovanni Rossi for a tough job. He restores old masters and occasionally paints a few of his own. He needs the solace of the canvas to balance the violence that inhabits his other world, because, you see, Giovanni Rossi is only one of many aliases Gabriel Allon goes by. Read More
Teaser
A deadly pair of bombings in Paris and Copenhagen ruins the first day of master art restorer and spy Gabriel Allon’s vacation with his wife. Then, before a third attack, Gabriel is knocked to the pavement --- and he can only watch helplessly as the nightmare unfolds.
Promo
A deadly pair of bombings in Paris and Copenhagen ruins the first day of master art restorer and spy Gabriel Allon’s vacation with his wife. Then, before a third attack, Gabriel is knocked to the pavement --- and he can only watch helplessly as the nightmare unfolds.
About the Book
Gabriel Allon has been hailed as the most compelling creation since “Ian Fleming put down his martini and invented James Bond” (Rocky Mountain News). A man with a deep appreciation for all that is beautiful, Gabriel is also an angel of vengeance, an international operative who will stop at nothing to see justice done. Sometimes he must journey far in search of evil. And sometimes evil comes to him.
In a dangerous world, one extraordinary woman can mean the difference between life and death. . . .
For Gabriel and his wife, Chiara, it was supposed to be the start of a pleasant weekend in London --- a visit to a gallery in St. James’s to authenticate a newly discovered painting by Titian, followed by a quiet lunch. But a pair of deadly bombings in Paris and Copenhagen has already marred this autumn day. And while walking toward Covent Garden, Gabriel notices a man he believes is about to carry out a third attack. Before Gabriel can draw his weapon, he is knocked to the pavement and can only watch as the nightmare unfolds.
Haunted by his failure to stop the massacre of innocents, Gabriel returns to his isolated cottage on the cliffs of Cornwall, until a summons brings him to Washington and he is drawn into a confrontation with the new face of global terror. At the center of the threat is an American-born cleric in Yemen to whom Allah has granted “a beautiful and seductive tongue.” A gifted deceiver, who was once a paid CIA asset, the mastermind is plotting a new wave of attacks.
Gabriel and his team devise a daring plan to destroy the network of death from the inside, a gambit fraught with risk, both personal and professional. To succeed, Gabriel must reach into his violent past. A woman waits there --- a reclusive heiress and art collector who can traverse the murky divide between Islam and the West. She is the daughter of an old enemy, a woman joined to Gabriel by a trail of blood. . . .
Set against the disparate worlds of art and intelligence, Portrait of a Spy moves swiftly from the corridors of power in Washington to the glamorous auction houses of New York and London to the unforgiving landscape of the Saudi desert. Featuring a climax that will leave readers haunted long after they turn the final page, this deeply entertaining story is also a breathtaking portrait of courage in the face of unspeakable evil --- and Daniel Silva’s most extraordinary novel to date.
