Daniel Silva stopped by Good Morning America to discuss his newest thriller, A Death in Cornwall.
Silva’s novel, scheduled for publication Tuesday by Harper, is the latest to feature his character Gabriel Allon, an Israeli spy and art restorer. In A Death in Cornwall, Allon investigates the murder of an art professor who was on the trail of a stolen Picasso painting.
GMA co-anchor George Stephanopoulos asked Silva what surprised him about Allon, who has featured in more than 20 of his novels, when he was writing his new book.
“As my fans know, I’ve sort of flipped the script a little bit,” Silva said. “Gabriel was once an intelligence officer who was also an art restorer on the side. Now he’s an art restorer who used to be an intelligence officer. And that just subtly changed the way I write the books.…He surprises me on every page. I just love the way the character is right now.”
Stephanopoulos asked Silva if he is ever inspired by a particular artist when writing his novels.
“I definitely use the imagery of the particular artist and elements of their biography in the story,” he said. “A big influence on me is Caravaggio, and I mean that [in] my writing as well. I try to write, at times, the way he painted, and so he’s a huge influence on me.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
