• Portrait of a Spy

  • A Novel
  • By: Daniel Silva
  • Narrated by: Simon Vance
  • Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (3,046 ratings)

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Portrait of a Spy  By  cover art

Portrait of a Spy

By: Daniel Silva
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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Publisher's summary

Haunted by his failure to stop a suicide bomber in London, Gabriel Allon is summoned to Washington and drawn into a confrontation with the new face of global terror. At the center of the threat is an American-born cleric in Yemen who was once a paid CIA asset.

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, and together they form an unlikely and dangerous bond.

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 listeners haunted long after the final words, 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.

©2011 Daniel Silva (P)2011 HarperCollins Publishers

What listeners say about Portrait of a Spy

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    1,722
  • 4 Stars
    942
  • 3 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
    73
  • 1 Stars
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Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
    224
  • 2 Stars
    58
  • 1 Stars
    35
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,505
  • 4 Stars
    700
  • 3 Stars
    231
  • 2 Stars
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  • 1 Stars
    26

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

FANTASTIC!

I look forward to Daniel Silva's novels. I love Gabriel and the crew. I thought the narration was terrific. I don't know what these people are talking about. I thought this was his best book ever.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Can't get enough Gabriel Allon

I'm a sucker for Gabriel Allon. I cannot get enough of these books. If you feel the same way, this one won't disappoint. (I also like Vivaldi even though he wrote the same concerto a hundred times.) It's not his most "believeable" work, but then are any of them? Isn't that why we love them?

I prefer the books with ex-Nazi or Russian crime lords as antagonists, as opposed to middle eastern terrorists (too close for comfort?) but if you are hooked on this series like I am, this one will satisify.

I'm not sure how long this series can go on, though. Gabriel and gang are getting a little old for this line of work--he must be at least 60 so, how old must chain-smoking Shamron be by now?

If you are just beginning to read Daniel Silva, this is not the best one to start with... I'd recommend "The English Assasin" which is still my all-time favorite.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Sesame Street's The Count as Gabriel Allon

Others have made the comparison before me, but this narrator sounds like The Count on Sesame Street. It's a detriment to an intriguing story.

It gets increasingly difficult to wade through all the exposition that is accumulating through this series, but the intrigue is just too much fun to keep me from enjoying the story.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

If you have come this far in the series...

Would you try another book from Daniel Silva and/or Simon Vance?

Yes. Once you get this far. You have to finish. Since I started at book 1, and am now here, I must move forward even though this was my least favorite.

Simon Vance is awful.

What other book might you compare Portrait of a Spy to and why?

I have no comparison. It is the least favorite of mine so far in the series.

Would you be willing to try another one of Simon Vance’s performances?

Absolutely not.

Do you think Portrait of a Spy needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No.

Any additional comments?

Worst narration I have heard so far. That is unless you like a narrator whose characters ALL sound like a terrible James Bond/Sean Connery imitation that went horribly awry. All of the characters were way too overplayed. It's as if the only voice he could use for every character was a play off of James Bond. This was a brutal book to get through. You should buy it and read it. Pass on the audio. Pick it back up in audio version when this narrator is not reading.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Another Well Conceived Silva Opus

These ratings should really include a separate feature for the narration. Five stars in that section for this book. Four for the novel itself only because I am loath to pass out five stars for any but the very, very best, and it would be hard for one to imagine a serial novel being on the same level as Les Miserables or Huckleberry Finn. Nonetheless, this was a rock-solid effort on the part of Daniel Silva. Kudos.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

fascinating but over the top

Silva is always a great read and he's getting better. But although I thoroughly enjoyed Portrait, it exaggerates the qualities of Gabriel and Nadia, the main characters. They both come across as "super" figures, cartoon characters.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Hard to listen to

I found the reader to sound alot like the Count from Sesame Street at times. Really like Paul's reading on earlier books.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

enjoyed it

Washington DC, London, Dubai, Riyadh and pionts in between. The Moassad, MI5, CIA, Islamic militants, international intergue, the lastest current events, a good description of how technology is ued in the spy world. What's not to like !

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Much the same

I have thoroughly enjoyed the characters of this book, but Mr. Silva has definitely gotten into a rut. Same story, different characters. If you've never listened to one of his books, it's great. If you've listened to them all, listen only if you want to "keep the streak alive".

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Well researched - but too long and no action.

This is the last time I will spend money on a Daniel Silva book until and unless he changes the current storyline and venue drastically. It is the same old same old and I wish I had my credit back as it was an extremely boring book. Way too much about art restoration and little to no action.

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2 people found this helpful