Portrait of an Unknown Woman and Riding with Bayer Leverkusen Again
Portrait of an Unknown Woman By: Daniel Silva
Published: July 19, 2022 Date Finished: May 18, 2024
Rating: 9/10
After his near-death experience at the end of The Cellist (the 21st entry in Daniel Silva’s series) Gabriel Allon is back in Portrait of an Unknown Woman. Gabriel has finally stepped down as Chief of The Office (Mossad) and finally can begin his civilian life in Venice with his wife Chiara and their young twins Irene and Raphael.
Gabriel’s cover identity when he was working as a Mossad assassin was as world class art restorer Mario Delvecchio. He’s anxious to get to work in his new career as the Director of the Paintings Department at the world-famous Tiepolo Restoration Company were Chiara serves as General Manager. As his boss, Chiara makes Gabriel take a well-deserved break and he spends leisurely days taking the kids to school, enjoying long lunches, and painting original works.
The story really begins when Gabriel’s old friend and London art dealer Julien Isherwood and his new partner (and former CIA operative who has worked with Gabriel in the field several times before) Sarah Bancroft sell a recently discovered painting (the titular Portrait of an Unknown Woman) that has been attributed to the Flemish Baroque Old Master Sir Anthony van Dyck to an American art-based hedge fund. Julien receives a letter from a woman in France about a possible issue with the provenance of this painting and he agrees to meet the woman in Paris. However, the woman is killed in a traffic accident on the way to the meeting and Isherwood is attacked on the street with his briefcase stolen and his hotel room ransacked. The official response from the French police and most of the art establishment, not wanting to believe so many of their treasured cultural works (that also serve as financial assets) are actually fakes bury their heads in the sand.
Gabriel agrees to look into the situation for his old friend and uncovers what might be the greatest art forgery ring in history. With the help of many recurring characters in the series, Gabriel flies across the globe in an attempt to unmask the conspiracy and find the great talent behind the fakes. In order to do this, he must cross over to the dark side himself and create works that can fool even the keenest eyes in the art world.
Portrait of an Unknown Woman is a bit of a departure for Silva as there is no global terrorism intrigue, but it has enough action and suspense to keep even the flightiest of readers engaged. There are even more references and allusions to the fine arts in this work than a usual work of the series and you can follow them down rabbit holes for many hours looking at paintings and listening to songs if you so choose.
I’ve always been interested in how popular the Gabriel Allon series has been in America since it stars an Israeli and only seldom is set in the US. I’m even more intrigued to see where the series goes after the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023 and the subsequent war in Gaza. This book and the 23rd book in the series (The Collector) both went to print before those events. However, the series will continue with A Death in Cornwall coming out this summer. Judging by the title it doesn’t sound like the current events will play a central role in the story, but I wonder how they will be addressed. Surely a former Mossad Chief will have to have something to say about what has been going on.
Bayer Leverkusen to win in Regular Time -120 at Draftkings
YTD 3-3-0 and +0.45 units
What a season we’ve had following Die Werkself. If you followed my advice, you’ve already won some money on them this year as the finished in the top 4 of the Bundesliga and qualified for next seasons’ Champions League. If I would have followed the courage of my convictions and recommended what I did personally, you would have increased your money 40-fold as Leverkusen topped serial champions Bayern Munich as well as the other 16 teams in the league and were crowned champions.
Not only have Leverkusen won the league already this season, they have done so without losing a game in any competition. All that stands between them and the invincible season is Atalanta in the Europa League Final on Wednesday in Dublin and then the DFB-Pokal final this weekend against second division 1 FC Kaiserslautern.
Atalanta will be a challenge. Since Gian Piero Gasperini took over as manager, Atlanta have known great success while playing an attractive, attacking style. I can’t say I follow Serie A (where Atalanta currently sit in 5th place) too closely, but they have a good manager and many good players and are a worthy opponent for a team looking to conclude a magical season.
Manager Xabi Alonso should have the whole squad to chose from for the final. Star young player and Bundesliga Player of the Season Florian Wirtz should be good to go after coming off the bench in the last league match of the season. They might start Schick or Boniface up front, or they could go with a false 9, no matter what Alonso decides, they’ll have plenty of fire power coming off the bench. That has been key to their undefeated season as it seems they’ve scored in the late stages of matches to secure positive results countless times throughout the season.
The boys from Leverkusen have already won us a lot of money this year and we’re going to ride with them one more time in the cup final. It should be an entertaining match as both teams will want to take the initiative and attack. Hopefully this isn’t the end of Die Werkself and they can keep the core of the team together and not sell off the top talent to bigger clubs this summer.