The English Spy

The explosion of a pipe bomb kills a princess in Oxford, and British intelligence quickly links the device to a legendary Irish assassin with connections that run deeper than anyone wants to admit. Gabriel Allon's investigation takes him into the intertwined worlds of Irish terrorism, British intelligence, and the American political establishment, where old alliances and older hatreds complicate every answer he finds. Daniel Silva uses the Diana-like figure of the murdered princess to examine how celebrity and politics have merged in the contemporary world.

George Guidall has narrated later volumes of the Allon series with an authority that differs interestingly from John Lee's work on the earlier books. Where Lee emphasizes the art restorer's reflective quality, Guidall brings a heavier operational weight to Allon, as if the character has been hardened by everything that has happened in the series' middle chapters. The audiobook won two awards, and Guidall's performance is central to why: he makes a sprawling international plot feel personal.