I became a fan of Daniel Silva over night (literally) when I read The Defector in two days. When he released The Rembrandt Affair, I snatched it up, but didn’t read it until just recently. So I was excited when I saw his latest work, The Portrait of a Spy. It was an easy decision to buy it.
Then I read the inside jacket.
In Portrait, Silva’s protagonist Gabriel Allon investigates bombings in London, Copenhagen and Paris. I’m working on the finishing touches on the third Corey Shaw mystery, Invisible Curtain, in which he investigates bombings in London, Copenhagen and St. Petersburg. I haven’t read Silva’s latest (until after Curtain is finished) but I’m sure the similarities between the books end there.
Allon is an ex-assassin, formerly of the Israeli Secret Intelligence. He wants nothing more than to live out his years quietly with his beautiful wife Chiara in Cornwall and restore valuable works of art. He’s come out of retirement almost as many times as Brett Favre as Israel still needs his skills.
Corey Shaw is a native of Massachusetts, trained to develop paranormal abilities such as clairvoyance and telepathy. He is still searching for Mr. Right, but having a good time with all the Mr. Wrongs for the time being.
I have no idea how Mr. Silva devises the premises for his stories, but I rely on the Agatha Christie method: wherever I travel, I use that location as a setting for a mystery/story. Last year, I went on a cruise through the Baltic Sea with my family to celebrate my parents’ fiftieth wedding anniversary. In Invisible Curtain, Corey is on a cruise through the Baltic Sea with his family to celebrate his mother’s seventieth birthday. This story has been in the works for over a year. I’ve gone from unemployed, to employed, back to unemployed in that time frame.
I’m sure that Mr. Silva, a New York Times best-selling author, won’t think I’ve copied his ideas. But if I came up with a chain of events similar to one he did, I must be on the right track.
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