Changes

|title=Portrait of a Spy

|author=Daniel Silva

|publisher=Harper

|date=October 2011

|website=http://danielsilvabooks.com

|summary=A fast-paced thriller combining the worlds of art, politics and espionage plus, of course, Gabriel Allon, the ex-Mossad agent who couldn't retire if he wanted to. Predictable in places, but so is Christmas and that's still thoroughly enjoyable.

}}

Gabriel Allon and his wife, Chiara, decide to rent a nice little Cornish cottage; the perfect hideaway in which to renovate art. A rosy domestic picture that, as any spy thriller aficionado will tell you isn't going to last long. It lasts, in fact, as long as it takes some middle-eastern terrorists to bomb Paris and Copenhagen and then move on to London's Covent Garden. Gabriel and Chiara are there, about to have lunch, but Gabriel is unable to concentrate on the menu and just let things happen. Mr and Mrs Allon end up being dragged back into the day job as they and their multi-national colleagues brandish a spectrum of experience and talent in order to take on a rogue Yemeni cleric who, embarrassingly enough, had been supported by the Americans.