In a spellbinding new masterpiece by #1 New York Times bestselling author Daniel Silva, Gabriel Allon undertakes a high-stakes search for the greatest art forger who ever lived Legendary spy and art restorer Gabriel Allon has at long last severed ties with Israeli intelligence and settled quietly in Venice, the only place where he has ever truly known peace. His beautiful wife, Chiara, has taken over the day-to-day management of the Tiepolo Restoration Company, and their two young children are discreetly enrolled in a neighborhood scuola elementare. For his part, Gabriel spends his days wandering the streets and canals of the watery city, bidding farewell to the demons of his tragic, violent past. But when the eccentric London art dealer Julian Isherwood asks Gabriel to investigate the circumstances surrounding the rediscovery and lucrative sale of a centuries-old painting, he is drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse where nothing is as it seems. Gabriel soon discovers that the work in question, a portrait of an unidentified woman attributed to Sir Anthony van Dyck, is almost certainly a fiendishly clever fake. To find the mysterious figure who painted it--and uncover a multibillion-dollar fraud at the pinnacle of the art world--Gabriel conceives one of the most elaborate deceptions of his career. If it is to succeed, he must become the very mirror image of the man he seeks: the greatest art forger the world has ever known. Stylish, sophisticated, and ingeniously plotted, Portrait of an Unknown Woman is a wildly entertaining journey through the dark side of the art world--a place where unscrupulous dealers routinely deceive their customers and deep-pocketed investors treat great paintings as though they were just another asset class to be bought and sold at a profit. From its elegant opening to the shocking twists of its climax, the novel is a tour de force of storytelling and one of the finest pieces of heist fiction ever written. And it is still more proof that, when it comes to international intrigue and suspense, Daniel Silva has no equal.

So often in history, it is ideas that kill ... What are the ideas that drive the Islamic State? How did it develop and systematise its unique form of apocalyptic violence? In this gripping account, Robert Manne shows how the Islamic State's worldview evolved, from the 1960s prison writings of Sayyid Qutb all the way to its elegant online magazine of horror, Dabiq. This gripping account reveals the crucial role of texts such as The Management of Savagery, and figures such as al-Zarqawi, who set out to pit Sunni against Shi'a, tearing Iraq apart. Shortly after the fall of Mosul in June 2014, US General Michael Nagata said of the new jihadist threat: 'We have not defeated the idea. We do not even understand the idea. By examining the beliefs and strategies at the heart of the Islamic State, Manne shows how a dark ideology came into being.

"This textbook will deliver a comprehensive, systematic introduction to homeland security today, including its conceptual foundations, legal underpinnings, historical evolution, constituent federal agencies, emerging technologies, and linkages to businesses, non-profits, civic groups, and individual citizens. Throughout the course of the book, particular emphasis will be placed on three paradigm shifts in homeland security: the new role of so-called "big data" analytics for risk assessment in homeland security decision-making; emerging understandings of the "homeland security enterprise," a term used by practitioners to describe whole-of-government efforts to manage natural and man-made threats; and the growing recognition of how international affairs can influence and shape domestic security considerations. The authors are all experts in homeland security and have published widely on the subject. In addition, the authors bring to bear on this project a compelling blend of academic and practitioner experience that will help this book to stand out among its competitors in the marketplace. Two of the authors (Busch and Givens) co-authored the 2014 book The Business of Counterterrorism: Public-Private Partnerships in Homeland Security. Alan Bers in has worked at the highest levels of the federal government, most recently as Assistant Secretary of International Affairs and Chief Diplomatic Officer at the OHS, and previously as Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Their combined expertise means that this project will benefit from both a rigorous scholarly approach and a compelling first-hand view of the federal government's inner workings from a former senior leader in the OHS. This project can be distinguished from other comparable textbooks, including those that focus upon specific sub-fields of homeland security. Some of these books offer introductions to homeland security but include little in the way of unifying themes or trends transcending the sub-fields of homeland security. Other books address specific problems in homeland security, such as terrorism or emergency management, and use these problems as starting points for broader discussions of government organizations involved in homeland security"--