Daniel Silva

Daniel Silva, born in 1960 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, is an American writer of espionage novels. A graduate of California State University, Fresno, he joined United Press International in 1984 and became its Middle East correspondent in Cairo, then produced political programmes for CNN, among them "Crossfire" and "The Capital Gang", until he left in 1997 to write full time. His first novel, "The Unlikely Spy", appeared in 1996 and was followed by two books featuring the CIA officer Michael Osbourne. In 2000 he began the series that made his name with "The Kill Artist", whose hero Gabriel Allon is an Israeli art restorer working for his country's intelligence service; it has run to more than twenty-five titles. He has twice won the Barry Award for best thriller, for "The Messenger" (2007) and "The Fallen Angel" (2013).