The Kill Artist

This is the first book in the Gabriel Allon series by Daniel Silva; having recently read one of the more recent installments, The English Girl, I wanted to backtrack and find out where Allon came from. This is very solid writing with well detailed settings, complex characters, and tight, fast-paced plots. I don't feel compelled to read all the Allon books (14 so far) but would never mind spending a few hours with another installment.
As the book opens, Allon is working as a highly in-demand art restorer, a profession in which he was originally trained through the auspices of the Israeli Secret Service to give him a valid cover for his less public activities. He is hiding from his former life, which he knows was responsible for the death of his small son and the permanent invalidism of his wife, who has been in a nursing home these last nine years. Still his former boss, Ari Shamron, once again the head of Mossad, has tracked him down and persuades Allon to assassinate the terrorist Tariq, the man who killed Allon's son. Shamron says there is proof that Tariq was behind the recent murders of the Israeli ambassador to France and his wife. He wants it done off the books and offers Allon a blank check to make it happen.
Allon recruits a part-time former agent and fading high fashion model, Jacqueline Delacroix, who also hides from her past as Sarah Halévy, daughter of Jews killed in WWII. Allon and Delacroix think they have infiltrated Tariq's organization, when in fact, they have been lured in by Tariq himself. The race is on to find and kill Tariq before he derails the Israeli-Palentinian peace process by murdering the key players, and to get Jacqueline out before her usefulness to Tariq is expended. It is only at the very end of the book that we find out how ruthlessly Shamron has manipulated Allon and Delacroix to get what he wants. Detailed plot summary available here.