Portrait of an Unknown Woman, Daniel Silva

An author making any kind of a comeback after three sub-par (two awful and one mediocre) books in a long-running series is not the safe way to bet. But Daniel Silva defies the odds as Gabriel Allon, now retired from Israeli intelligence, is drawn from his peaceful career of restorations by old friend Julian Isherwood. A previously unknown work by a 16th century English artist has come to light and although almost every inspection suggests it is real, there are whispers about it. Julian, a veritable vacuum cleaner of such talk, enlists Gabriel on behalf of colleagues who need to know if what they have is a real work.

But as Gabriel uses his undiminished investigative skill to probe the matter, he find there is more than simply the authenticity of one painting at stake. In the new world of investing in fine art, there are millions of reasons to keep secrets -- and to kill to keep them hidden. But shady dealers in the art world will soon learn what dozens of enemy agents have learned at great cost: No one plays that game better than Gabriel Allon.

Portrait of an Unknown Woman is such a pleasure partly in contrast with its immediate predecessors, and partly because in it a well-liked author demonstrates he hasn't lost whatever "it" people mean when describing folks who have or haven't got it. But primarily it's a pleasure because it's a really tightly-woven spy thriller and it's in a new environment that keeps Silva from relying on some of his old faithful tropes and schemes.

Yes, the denouement comes when Gabriel and his friends run a delightfully Mission Impossible- styled scam on the criminals, as he has in the past. But bereft of his usual team from the Office, he must recruit and sort through new players and tailor the scam to their strengths. And the arena in which they play is that of high-dollar art sales and the new feature of multimillion-dollar investments in the value of different works. The decidedly new field offers intrigue instead of familiarity and lets Gabriel -- who desired a career in art before recruited by the Office -- use both sets of skills.

Silva's clean, dry and witty style, instead of being a thin layer over a pile of junk and garbage, helps reinforce the quick-moving plot and sketch the new characters while meshing nicely with the judiciously-selected returnees. In the end, Portrait of an Unknown Woman is both a welcome return to form as well as a book to which Silva fans can direct the curious if they'd like to check out the series.