Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Kill Artist
    The Kill Artist
    The Kill Artist
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Kill Artist

    Written by Daniel Silva

    Narrated by George Guidall

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Tightly written thrillers like The Marching Season have made best-selling novelist Daniel Silva a favorite of readers everywhere. In The Kill Artist, he paints an absorbing portrait of a reluctant hero's attempt to thwart an old enemy to preserve a precarious peace. After the assassination of his wife and son, Gabriel Allon retires from his brutal anti-terrorist career and loses himself in his previous cover job: art restoration. But when Tariq al-Hourani, the Palestinian terrorist responsible for his family's death, begins a killing spree designed to destroy Middle East peace talks, Gabriel once again slips into the shadowy world of international intrigue. In a global game of hide-and-seek, the motives of Gabriel and Tariq soon become more personal than political. Filled with vivid action and a fascinating cast of supporting characters, The Kill Artist delivers pulse-pounding suspense, carried to a startling climax by the tension-packed narration of George Guidall.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateJun 29, 2012
    ISBN9781464034091
    The Kill Artist
    Author

    Daniel Silva

    Daniel Silva is the award-winning, No.1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-three novels, including The Unlikely Spy, The Confessor, A Death in Vienna, The Messenger, Moscow Rules, The Rembrandt Affair, The English Girl and The Black Widow. His books are published in more than thirty countries and are best sellers around the world. He lives in Florida with his wife, CNN special correspondent Jamie Gangel, and their two children, Lily and Nicholas.

    More audiobooks from Daniel Silva

    Related to The Kill Artist

    Titles in the series (1)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Thrillers For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      La Otra Historia

      Jun 30, 2022

      La Otra Historia
      14 min read

    • Article

      Cherubs

      Jul 5, 2023

      Cherubs
      10 min read

    • Article

      Reginald’s Party

      Jul 10, 2022

      For the fourth time that evening, Reginald smoothed his moustache in the mirror. It was perfect. Was it? Just a touch here… Now it was perfect. Soon his guests would arrive—only a few this evening, a small coterie from the Mayfair Club, on whom he co

      27 min read

    • Article

      Une Affaire Dangereuse

      Feb 1, 2018

      Une Affaire Dangereuse
      10 min read

    • Article

      Marina’s Mission

      Jan 26, 2022

      Marina’s Mission
      7 min read

    • Article

      Marina’s Mission

      Jan 26, 2022

      Marina’s Mission
      7 min read

    • Article

      In From The Cold

      Nov 13, 2023

      In From The Cold
      7 min read

    • Article

      Part Sixteen The Meeting With Count Ferrari

      Jul 8, 2022

      THE INTRIGUING CASE OF A MURDER IN PARIS Count Ferrari’s regal residence was a solid half hour walk according to the conscientious concierge at Noella’s hotel. Apparently it would be a mucky, muddy trudge through the Paris streets, heading south from

      4 min read

    • Article

      Memories Of A Miracle

      Dec 1, 2023

      Memories Of A Miracle
      8 min read

    • Article

      Karolina

      Jun 15, 2019

      I first saw Karolina outside the Sumesa on the corner of Avenidas Oaxaca and Álvaro Obregón. She was smoking a stubby cigarette, a sled-like backpack hitched to her shoulders. I stopped short, felt my heart lurch. Could it be? Karolina was my brother

      31 min read

    • Article

      Housewarming

      Dec 1, 2022

      DENNIS MCFARLAND’S most recent novel is Nostalgia. His stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Best American Short Stories, and the Scholar, among other places. When Kevin arrived at the top floor and stepped into a long dark hallway, he couldn’t re

      21 min read

    • Article

      Mrs Simpson Learns A Lesson

      Jul 29, 2021

      Mrs Simpson Learns A Lesson
      4 min read

    • Article

      An Inspired Theft

      Jan 9, 2018

      An Inspired Theft
      3 min read

    • Article

      HOME To Roost

      Mar 5, 2024

      HOME To Roost
      11 min read

    • Article

      Home to ROOST

      Jan 11, 2022

      Home to ROOST
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Walnut Tree

      Nov 10, 2023

      When they told him at work that he’d be accompanying a group of American tourists, Nikolay wasn’t particularly excited. This coming Saturday happened to be his only chance to take his car in for servicing. Sergey, his mechanic, had Sundays off, and i

      25 min read

    • Article

      Nothing to Declare

      Jun 15, 2019

      All the senior partners were having a laugh about a movie they’d seen. Forty-Five Years. Something, something about the movie taking forty-five years to sit through. The woman McGuinness thought he recognized was in it with them at the far end of the

      24 min read

    • Article

      In Love And War

      Jun 10, 2021

      April 1943 - Krakow, Poland Irena was bent over her needlework, stitching the frayed seam of her skirt when she heard a single gunshot ring out. She jerked and then scowled. After four years of war, she ought to be used to it. Why, the other night a

      11 min read

    • Article

      Typewriter

      Aug 2, 2021

      Chère Madame. Vous ne vous rappelleriez pas de moi, mais de ma part… Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap. Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap… She flicks the return bar – PING – and her fingers fall back into rhythm. Catherine’s French comes as naturally as the movement of her

      5 min read

    • Article

      The History Before Us

      Jan 21, 2019

      The History Before Us
      10 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Sep 1, 2022

      1. Here there’s no rainy season.Sun scalds my forehead,yet the pool is empty. Beside it,a toppled table, its glass surface shattered.The asphalt is too hot for bare feet. 2. Far away: white hillocksand white dunes under a deepblue sky. Swirling winds

      5 min read

    • Article

      Where Does This Live?

      Dec 6, 2022

      The Roseville Hotel had closed many years ago, and the rooms upstairs had been converted to apartments, but the bar on the ground floor was still called the Roseville Hotel, because everyone was used to the name. One Saturday in January, John James a

      22 min read

    • Article

      A Picture Of Dear Raymond

      Aug 24, 2022

      One of the great joys of Raymond Briggs’s column in The Oldie was that we got two geniuses for the price of one. As well as receiving his charming sideways look at life in the column, we got one of his peerless drawings every month. A compilation was

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Kill Artist

    4.5/5

    150 ratings18 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Daniel Silva and Gabriel Allan the best!
      A excellent page Turner!
    • 3/5
      meh . . . too much politics for me. Was interesting tho.
    • 4/5
      "The Kill Artist" tells the story of Gabriel Alon, a former Israeli agent who has retired to a life of an art restorer, his former cover which became his occupation. Alon is called back for duty one last time to stop an old enemy who is on a murderous spree before he leaves this world. The story takes place in Europe, US, Canada and Israel and has many twists and turns where no character is left unharmed. The book if an easy read, fast and a page turner even though somewhat predictable, yet it does have its surprises. The author does try to present several sides of the mid-East issues but doesn't delve into any issues of take sides (almost a bullet point presentation summed up in a few paragraphs). There are no "good" or "bad" guys in this book, which is one reason I liked it, the Israelis fight with the same immoral conviction as their Palestinian counterparts - and both believe they are right an stand on a higher moral ground than their opponent. The characters in the book are somewhat cliché, a supermodel spy who is used to entice enemies, a tortured reluctant hero, an enemy who feels justified, SOB directors and more. It is a well written spy novel, filled with details in all the right places as well as several characters from Silva's previous novels and wonderful political popcorn for those of us that care. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
    • 4/5
      I discovered Daniel Silva because of the many recommendations I saw here on LT, and wasn't disappointed with my first experience. The first of the Gabriel Allon series literally starts off with a bang, and our hero, who is a leader in the field of art restoration, is cajoled out of early retirement from his other job as a spy for the Israeli secret service when an Israeli ambassador and his wife are murdered in Paris. The suspect is a known Palestinian terrorist who is also a master of disguise. Allon is expected to track him down in Europe and kill him in absolute secrecy. Of course, there is a beautiful woman in the picture who may or may not be a damsel in distress. This thriller was well put together, and I was impressed with the way Silva handled the touchy political issues at hand by presenting both sides of the conflict fairly and letting the readers make up their own mind. I'll be looking for the next in the series soon enough.
    • 5/5
      I could not put this book down and read it in one long, delicious whirlwind of a night. Took about 6 hours from mysterious start to sort-of-satisfying end. I've read other Gabriel Allon books - not in any sort of order, so going to the Kill Artist allowed me to find out how it all started. Some mysteries were resolved for me, some seem more elusive than ever. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and each of the books written by Daniel Silva that I've been lucky enough to read - I'm definitely going to spend time filling in the blanks.
    • 4/5
      Book was interesting, the actor been reading - good, reflecting of characters with their accent and personalities very good. Too short and some how reading books for me feels better. But I’m definitely finished listen book faster, than reading...
    • 4/5
      An introduction to the Gabriel Allon series, I enjoyed the storyline very much. I found it hard to keep up with the ever growing cast of characters, but perhaps that is the case with the genre. Fast paced page turner, will read the next in series, as most say it gets better.
    • 5/5
      Deep characterizes and good story, perfect narrator - this all made a wonderful audiobook
    • 4/5
      Chronologically, this is the first of the Gabriel Allon spy novels. When the book opens, Gabriel is a retired Israeli agent and living in England, working peacefully as an art restorer on a work by Vecellio called Adoration of the Shepherd. Shamron, head of the Israeli intelligence network called The Office persuades him to come back to work for one last assignment, tracking down and killing the Islamic terrorist Tariq, who years before had killed Gabriel's young son and severely injured his wife. Tariq has killed the Israeli ambassador to the Netherlands and now has a plan to try and stop the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Gabriel works with a beautiful French model of Jewish origins to try and infiltrate into Tariq's network, which turns out to be a very dangerous game. Tariq learns that Gabriel is after him, and it becomes a race to see who can eliminate the other first. This spy novel was definitely a page-turner. It had interesting characters, suspense, plenty of action, excellent pacing, and it was believable. It even had an art connection, a plus for me. I enjoyed it and look forward to reading the next one in the series.
    • 3/5
      This is not a full review. At least, not yet. I write now only to draw attention to what must be Mr. Silva's homage to John Le Carre. In both "The Kill Artist" and Le Carre's "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy," an important character is a mysterious newcomer -- a man who arrives at an out-of-the-way place in England apparently intent on keeping a low profile. In "The Kill Artist," the character is the spy Gabriel Allon. In "Tinker, Tailor," it is the spy Jim Prideaux. Each man is haunted in a way by his professional past. And each becomes the project of a boy with problems who has developed the skills of a "watcher." Mr. Le Carre's watcher, famously, is Roach, one of the boys at the school where Prideaux is filling in as a teacher. Mr. Silva's is Peel, who lives with his mother and her beastly lover near the house Allon has taken in Cornwall. Prideaux and Allon notice and appreciate the nascent espionage skills of the boys. Later in each book, another mysterious person -- an older man -- fatefully visits the stranger. In "The Kill Artist," it is the legendary spy master Ari Shamron, and of course in "Tinker, Tailor," it is the rumpled, brilliant, legendary spy master George Smiley.
    • 2/5
      I read this book for RL book group. It is for my mystery group and it is more thriller than mystery. It is took me a while, mostly because I wanted it to be over, and found it hard to pick up and easy to put down. The writing was good but that didn't help, it was the content that was the problem for me.I used to like this type of book when I was younger, but now it seems slick, superficial, smarmy and manipulative. I don't know if I have changed and matured, if after 9/11 I am less interested in the casual murder of others, or if this book is just not done well.Its very simplistic, the good guy can kill people and be called an assassin, because he is killing the bad guy. The bad guy kills people and is called a terrorist. Yet both are committing murder.The characters are Israelis and Palestinians, very predictably portrayed.The thing is both are human, both have family and friends who will be the ones to suffer the lingering damage of murder and it will cause another round of killing/dying/suffering.The murders are payback for previous wrongs and will most assuredly generate new murders.I suppose I can't fault the writer for not having a better solution or story, since we are struggling with the same issues in real life, but the author adds nothing new to the mix. It feels ghoulish and sad to watch these doomed people for entertainment purposes.The story follows Gabriel Allon who is a retired Israeli assassin. In retirement he uses his skill in art to become an art restorer. He of course is very good at it, so he lives a comfortable life, on the outside. On the inside he is troubled by his past actions, kindled by the memory of his wife and son being blown up in a car bomb.This was were I felt manipulated by the author. I thought Silva used the love of a family to make Allon seem less like a killer and more like a normal person. He is supposed to be seen as morally superior to his boss, the hard, scheming man who plans killings. Please. Then the bomb incident was two-fold, it made it seem like he had paid for his past evil, that he suffered and didn't get off free and of course it meant he could have sexy encounters with beautiful agents all while conforming to modern morality. I wanted to throw the book against a wall.The story is of the bad guy, Tariq a Palestinian assassin, killing high profile Jewish targets around the world. Allon's boss was also retired, but has been asked back because the current regime was bungling publicly. He of course talks Allon into returning. Allon will come back to hunt Tariq, because he is the one who blew up the car with Allon's wife and child in it.So this is not just protecting the innocent, avenging the wrongs done to the country of Israel and the Jewish people/religion/culture, but a personal vendetta. Hooks to catch the sympathy of many readers. I just felt the killings were there to provide justification for more killings. The bad guy Tariq kills an American too at the start. He uses unsuspecting women as cover, and then kills them. Since only American lives seem to be of value, that had to happen to make Tariq a bad guy we will really hate. To be fair, Silva gives Tariq a childhood of suffering extreme violence and the loss of family at the hands of the Israeli's in the refugee camps in Lebanon. Silva can say he is not one-sided, but presents both sides in a bad light. It means Tariq is also working for vengeance, and feels justified in his actions.The whole thing has the feeling of the calculus of hate and violence balanced so finely to make everything seem justified and inevitable. I just felt sad and dirty reading the book. The writing is very good, if shallow and slick. There are lots of summaries so that the information is packed in, but can be read quickly. Allon works with a beautiful high fashion model who is also an operative, and has romantic feelings for him. The guilt he feels about his family, prevents him from accepting her. Ho - Hum. The only interesting character to me, is Peel, a young English child who is an observer of Allon the art restorer. There is a small amount about art restoration, but not much, it is flimsy window dressing.The ending at least is not so pat. There is a twist with the final victim, and with the terrorist. Allon and the girl are still circling.I don't know if the subject - violence in the Middle East was also what put me off. What happens there, impacts the US, even if we are not involved. The thrillers I liked in my younger days, were about Japan and ninjas, subjects that really didn't involve the US. I am too young to view them as the menace of WWII, and I read the books before their brief economic menace. I haven't re-read them as an older adult, so I don't know if they would still interest me, or if I would find them sad, contrived and dirty now too.I don't plan to read anymore of this author or this series.
    • 3/5
      Spy thriller, very violent and terrifying but also sad.
    • 4/5
      I felt that the main character -- Gabriel Allon -- was the least well developed character in the book. I hope that future books in the series do a better job of getting inside of this character's head.
    • 5/5
      Very enjoyable read, can’t wait to read the next one!
    • 2/5
      I think what may have killed this book for me was I read this just after reading John Le Carre's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold--and after having recently read Alan Furst and Eric Ambler while working through a recommendation list that included Silva among this number. I got spoiled and after reading the best in the espionage genre this struck me as nothing more than a generic pulp thriller with all the writing skill, complexity of characterization and plotting of a blow'm up rat-tat-tat of a popcorn chomping action adventure flick.It doesn't help that in the first hundred or so pages Silva rotates the points of views so quickly. I didn't get invested enough in any character early on to really get hooked. This is supposedly the first in a series of novels about Gabriel Allon, an Israeli agent fighting terrorists. We're introduced to him only as "the restorer" and then as "the stranger" and it's quite a while before he's linked to Gabriel Allon who seems less a starring player as just one in an ensemble cast. His opponent "Tariq" is the usual cut-out cardboard Muslim terrorist--as quick to execute a lover or someone on his own side as the enemy and without remorse. The style is decent enough, but nothing in the novel raised this to anything memorable among the many "dicklit" thrillers that spend some time in the bestseller list.
    • 5/5
      Super, super book. I've been listening to this in the car, and at first I was a bit concerned that I wasn't going to like it. It took me a few hours to get through the set-up. However, once the "action" started, I was hooked. Gabriel is the moodiest spy you'll ever fall in love with, and I hope there is more of Jacqueline later in this series. The information about the Israel/Palestine conflict is as timely as ever. If you like espionage, intrigue, and international politics, you must give this a try.
    • 4/5
      A fairly average thriller that starts off well with an unusual premise, but fails to hold it all the way through.Gabriel Allon was a stellar member of Israel's fabelled intelligence service Mossad. When his wife and daughter were the victims of a palastinian terrorist plot he retired and took up the descrete profession as an art restorer - not something that you'd have thought he'd have had time to learn properly. However with the servive's reputation in tatters, he is called back "one last time" to salvage their respect, and maybe settle old debts at the same time. His sole aid is a disenchanted beautiful, young but aging, model. Who, in one of the more unbelivable parts, suddenly finds how to fire pistols with extreme accuracy after many years without even holding one! - unlike every other professional sharpshooter.It's the details and belivability that turn a good book into a great one. And while this is well written and holds the interest, the details just don't quite work. The style is slightly faster than le Carre's Smilely era, but the general air is similar. The author does well in not getting too bogged down in the complex politics of Israel and Palastine, and sympathy can be found for both causes.Readable, but nothing special. Seems a poor hook for a series.I fyou wish to comment on this review please feel free to do so either on my profile or in the Review Discussions group - Here
    • 3/5
      I liked this book, it was a good introduction to Gabriel Allon and Ari. It's interesting to see Ari's worries about why people are hesitant to return and what makes him tick. Gabriel as well, although I knew some of this from reading books further in the series. As always, a good Silva read.