It was not until the couple had been married for about eight years, in 1995, that Silva revealed to his wife the fact that being a novelist had been his lifelong desire. At the time, he was also serving for CNN. She granted her husband her full support and he secretly started working on his first manuscript. Silva instantly became a bestselling author when his first attempt at a novel, The Unlikely Spy, hit store shelves in 1996, only a year after his work on the writing project had begun. He would disappear aboard the boat for days at a time. Peel had no way to follow him. He could only imagine where the stranger was going. Down the Helford to the sea? Around the Lizard to St. Michael’s Mount or Penzance? Maybe around the cape to St. Ives.

Tariq al-Hourani works at the reception and manages to get into a room alone with Arafat by delivering a plate of dates. Gabriel and Jacqueline arrive at the building where Douglas Cannon is hosting the reception for Arafat. As Tariq prepares to kill Yasir Arafat, Arafat recognizes him and recites the history of his accomplishments to him. Tariq decides not to kill Arafat and leaves the room. Gabriel enters the room and Arafat comments that he is still alive, no thanks to Gabriel. Jacqueline and Gabriel pursue al-Hourani, who shoots Gabriel in the chest and flees. Jacqueline follows Tariq and fatally wounds him. Ari arrives and tells Jacqueline to let Tariq die. Ari wants to see Gabriel. Gabriel hires a former member of the Central Intelligence Agency to set up listening devices to monitor Tawfiki. A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy. Ken Follett, and John Le Carré. In his fourth and latest novel, The Kill Artist, Silva turns to the twisted history and undying blood feuds of the Middle East and solidifies his position as one of the most accomplished new practitioners of the international thriller. Whilst the Palestinians are portrayed as the terrorists the reasons why they have taken up the gun is well explored. There are no angels here.

While serving in this position, Silva met his soon-to-be wife, Jamie Gangel, who happened to be the national correspondent for NBC Today. The couple was married during the latter end of 1987 and returned to Washington together, where they resided. Silva’s wife Jamie found work with CNN, becoming an executive producer for several of the network’s popular talk shows, including Reliable Sources and Crossfire. Years later, a stranger is living in Port Navas, Cornwall, England. Timothy Peel, a bored youngster, learns that he is an art restorer. The stranger offers Peel a job watching his residence. Shamron gets severely injured by the bomb, but is not killed. Instead, he is left to fight for his life. This inspires Gabriel to join forces with a CIA member in an effort to infiltrate a terrorist financier who has ties to both the murder attempt on the Pope and Shamron. Daniel Silva Stories on the Silver Screen:

Gabriel Allon's work as one of the world's foremost art restorers has significant parallels to his work as one of the world’s foremost intelligence operatives. Indeed, the part titles of The Kill Artist allude to these parallels: Part One, "Acquisition"; Part Two, "Assessment"; and Part Three, "Restoration." What are the various parallels suggested by these part titles? What are the similarities between Gabriel's work in art restoration and his work in intelligence operations? The goal of the art restorer is to restore a painting so well that it's nearly impossible to tell the difference between the restorer's work and the original artist's. How is a similar kind of deception and layering of identity a part of intelligence work? The operation that follows is a tortuous affair, marked by departmental wrangling, hidden political agendas, and wheels within wheels. The action unfolds in a series of crisp, tightly constructed set pieces that range from the capitals of Europe (Paris, London, Lisbon) to Jerusalem itself, with intermittent stops in Montreal, New York City, and Washington, DC. Characters caught up in the drama include a London-based art dealer who has fallen on hard times, a Rupert Murdoch- style media magnate, and a world famous fashion model whose glossy, high-profile lifestyle conceals her tragic family history, and her occasional role as a clandestine operative for the Israeli secret service. Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival. This is a whirlwind adventure that will take you all over Europe and the Middle East before ending up in the USA. Also, Yasar arafat is psychic, caring and brilliant. The President of the US likes to have Yasar Arafat come by the White House in the middle of night to keep him company when he's bored. More about the plight and horrors the Palestinians have went through then you could possibly digest in one sitting. And Israel ain't so hot...but, it is ruthless and merciless.But that evening Peel managed to slip out with his binoculars. He walked along the quay, past the stranger’s darkened cottage and the oyster farm, and stood at the point where the creek fed into the Helford River, watching the sailboats coming in with the tide. He spotted a ketch heading in under power. He raised the binoculars to his eyes and studied the figure standing at the wheel. The hero of The Kill Artist is Gabriel Allon, a world-class art restorer and former Israeli intelligence agent who lost his wife and son to a Palestinian car bombing in 1991. As the novel opens, Gabriel is living a solitary, tightly focused existence on the Cornish coast of England when a figure from the past -- legendary spymaster Ari Shamron -- reenters his life. Shamron, the agent responsible for the kidnapping and capture of Adolph Eichman, has a brand new scheme in mind, a scheme that requires Gabriel Allon's services. Julian Isherwood, a British art dealer who has no illusions about the fact that he is getting older and the business is not as lucrative as it once was when he was younger. Allon is his most sought-after restorer, but he also knows that Allon’s other life as a spy may drag him away from his studio work and thus ruin Isherwood.

In Montreal, Leila rents a car and drives with Jacqueline to a major hotel in the city. At the hotel, Jacqueline meets "Lucien Daveau." Tariq al-Hourani maintains his false identity and challenges Jacqueline's motivation for accompanying him. She replies that she is with him out of love for Yusef al-Tawfiki. Al-Hourani takes her shopping for clothes appropriate to the winter weather of Montreal.A car bombing in Paris, killing the Israel Ambassador and his wife, bears Tariq’s “hallmarks” of detailed planning, execution and escape. Not everyone in the PLO agrees with Yasir Arafat brokering a peace deal with the Israelis, and Shamron is pessimistic that the peace deal will hold when so many elements on both sides wants it to fail. With politics in Israel taking an ugly turn, Shamron flies to England to coax Gabriel out of retirement to seek revenge on Tariq. He is to set up his own organisation in London, separate from Israeli intelligence, and blindsiding both MI5 and Langley, which is closely monitoring the peace deal. Somewhat reluctantly, he recruits French Jew and model, Jacqueline, whom he worked with before, as a “honeypot” to infiltrate Tariq’s organisation.