Renowned Israeli spy master Gabriel Allon is recently retired and living in Venice with his family. On Chiara’s orders, he is enjoying an intermezzo from work, both from the spycraft and the restoration business he is an employee of now. Unfortunately, the rest is short-lived. Julian Isherwood has sold a painting to an American investor that has questionable origins, if a French woman, who contacted him upon knowing of the painting’s sale, is to be believed.
If the painting is exposed as a forgery, Julian will be ruined personally and professionally. However, the fallout won’t stop there, for the art world is small and intricate. Julian asks Gabriel Allon to investigate who is behind the painting’s resurgence, who stands to profit, and who has gone to such lengths to stage a car accident to remove an unwanted witness from raising valid questions.
Portrait of an Unknown Woman turned out to be a mixed bag. The first half was laugh-out-loud funny and a breeze to read. Silva has found a turn of phrase that I love, with well constructed literary images lacking in his earlier novels. I thought up to that point that it was a return to top form by the author after the last two duds. Silva kept the usual padding to a minimum, and the pace was on par with the action. However, the second half of the book was extremely dense, as it delved into the intricacies of a Ponzi scheme hedge fund that used forged paintings as collaterals to secure massive loans with which it paid dividends to its investors. It wasn’t the same level of boring as the financial discussion turned out in The Cellist, but it was dense enough. I guessed the culprit since his first appearance, though, fortunately, it didn’t affect my enjoyment of this novel.
I’m starting to wonder if this franchise has run its course. Since Silva found new political leanings, he avoids the kind of foreign policy criticism and sure fire commentaries about American administrations that made this series wildly successful. I used to look forward to reading each new installment, waiting for Silva to anticipate world events and make his incisive analyses of the implications for countries the world over, and the Middle East in particular, but that is no longer the case. The world has turned vastly unpredictable, and Silva quite the opposite. Gabriel Allon used to be formidable, now he has been reduced to playing a standard detective with great connections in the criminal and the spy world alike, at least that has been the case in the last three installments. I’m not sure that Allon being retired is good for this franchise; let’s hope I’m wrong and Silva finds his footing once more.
Overall, Portrait of an Unknown Woman has some pluses and minuses in its ledger. The first half is extremely good, while the second half becomes increasingly dense.
William W. Gravely