A Death in Corn­wall is the lat­est book in Daniel Silva’s best­selling series fea­tur­ing Israeli spy­mas­ter Gabriel Allon. In this nov­el, Allon is now retired from his role as chief of the Mossad. He is embrac­ing his oth­er pas­sions: he is one of the world’s fore­most art restor­ers, he remains in love with his wife of so many years, and he’s a dot­ing father to his two chil­dren. Yet Allon’s work is part of who he is, and it is not going away.

So it is not sur­pris­ing when an old friend calls on Allon to help solve the mur­der of a renowned art his­to­ri­an who was research­ing the prove­nance of a long-miss­ing Picas­so once owned by a wealthy French Jew­ish fam­i­ly. The paint­ing was stolen by the Nazis, and most of the fam­i­ly per­ished in the Holo­caust. As the sto­ry unfolds, we come to find that oth­er mur­ders have been per­pe­trat­ed to hide the iden­ti­ty of some­one who wants the inves­ti­ga­tion to end. Allon, defend­er of Jews who have been wronged, pur­sues the mys­tery. His hand­some, rugged appear­ance and unas­sum­ing charm con­ceal his deter­mined nature and his cre­ative — and, at times, vio­lent — methods.

This book stands alone and can be enjoyed by the read­er who has nev­er read a nov­el by Sil­va, but devo­tees of the author will rec­og­nize his char­ac­ters. The young boy from South­west Eng­land who is now a detec­tive, the Cor­si­can don of an orga­nized crime fam­i­ly, and Allon’s for­mer col­leagues all give the return­ing read­er a sense of familiarity.

Silva’s writ­ing style is per­fect for the genre. The chap­ters are short, the scenes move quick­ly and flow smooth­ly, and the author man­ages to keep the read­er sur­prised. Even the long­time Sil­va fan won’t quite know where the sto­ry is heading.

Any series using a well-known char­ac­ter can become for­mu­la­ic. The read­er knows that what­ev­er pick­le the pro­tag­o­nist finds him­self in, he will sur­vive and end up back with his fam­i­ly. Yet the genius of Sil­va is that he still draws us in. We end up car­ing about the char­ac­ters, root­ing against the vil­lain, and rev­el­ing in the sat­is­fac­tion that fol­lows a tense, globe-trot­ting pursuit.