But how to explain the superrich multibillionaire who hires a firm like Mossack Fonseca to shave a few million from his tax bill? Or the kleptocratic thug who stashes his money in an offshore bank account, or in a piece of posh London real estate, while his impoverished people struggle to feed their children? “Perhaps what drives them all,” wrote British investigative reporter Tom Burgis in his 2020 book Kleptopia, “is fear: the fear that soon there will not be enough to go round, that on a simmering planet the time is approaching for those who have gathered all they can unto themselves to cut free from the many, from the others. There’s only one side to be on if you wish to avoid destruction: theirs. You are with the Kleptopians or you are against them. The Earth cannot sustain us all.”
But the planet, simmering a few years ago, is now burning, and millions of desperate people are on the move in search of a better life. In developed countries, they are straining resources and exacerbating political tensions. Many businesses welcome them, though, for they are a source of cheap and exploitable labor—human capital, in the lexicon of the wealth extractors, willing to do punishing and dangerous work that native-born citizens are not. They pick fruit and vegetables in the blazing sun, they toil in blood-drenched slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants, they wash dishes and clean rooms in luxury hotels, they care for the sick and the dying.
In many cases, the migrants have fled a country ruled by a kleptocrat with offshore bank accounts created for him by the London
Laundromat—the same machine that has helped countless billionaires, the richest of the rich, conceal their immense wealth
and evade taxation. Hidden by shell companies and layered trusts, these members of an increasingly powerful global plutocracy
dwell in a parallel universe, accessible to only a select few. Fine art confers upon the superrich a patina of instant sophistication
and respectability, even if they have neither. Which might explain why so many of their ilk have chosen to stash their multimillion-dollar
paintings in the Geneva Freeport so as to deny the tax collector his due. What more needs to be said?
Acknowledgments
I am eternally grateful to my wife, Jamie Gangel, who listened patiently while I worked out the plot of A Death in Cornwall and then skillfully edited my first draft. My debt to her is immeasurable, as is my love.
David Bull, whose name appears in the third chapter of the novel, was once again an invaluable source of information on all matters related to art and restoration. Maxwell L. Anderson, who has five times served as the director of a North American art museum, including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, provided me with a window on some of the more unsavory aspects of the business of art.
My Los Angeles superlawyer Michael Gendler was, as always, a source of wise counsel. My dear friend Louis Toscano made countless improvements to my typescript, as did my eagle-eyed personal copy editor, Kathy Crosby. Any typographical errors that slipped through their formidable gauntlet are my responsibility, not theirs.
Harper president and publisher, Jonathan Burnham, who has the misfortune of also serving as my editor, provided me with an insightful and erudite set of notes on topics ranging from classical music to Venetian cuisine. A heartfelt thanks to the rest of my remarkable team at HarperCollins, especially Brian Murray, Leah Wasielewski, Doug Jones, Leslie Cohen, David Koral, and Jackie Quaranto.
Like the fictitious Gabriel Allon, I am the father of twins. Mine are named Lily and Nicholas, and as always they were a source
of love and inspiration throughout the writing year. They have much in common with Irene and Raphael, especially their intelligence,
their innate kindness, and their senses of humor. At the time of this writing, however, neither had adopted an animal from
the World Wildlife Fund or fallen into hopeless despair over the prospect of melting ice caps and submerged cities. In the
Silva family, those characteristics have been assigned to the figure of late middle age who toils behind a locked door, listening
to music that annoys those around him.
About the Author
DANIEL SILVA is the award-winning, number-one New York Times bestselling author of The Unlikely Spy, The Mark of the Assassin, The Marching Season, The Kill Artist, The English Assassin, The Confessor, A Death in Vienna, Prince of Fire, The Messenger, The Secret Servant, Moscow Rules, The Defector, The Rembrandt Affair, Portrait of a Spy, The Fallen Angel, The English Girl, The Heist, The English Spy, The Black Widow, House of Spies, The Other Woman, The New Girl, The Order, and The Collector. He is best known for his long-running thriller series starring spy and art restorer Gabriel Allon. Silva’s books are critically acclaimed bestsellers around the world and have been translated into more than thirty languages.
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Also by Daniel Silva
The Rembrandt Affair
The Defector
Moscow Rules
The Secret Servant
The Messenger
Prince of Fire
A Death in Vienna
The Confessor
The English Assassin
The Kill Artist
The Marching Season
The Mark of the Assassin
The Unlikely Spy
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
a death in cornwall. Copyright © 2024 by Daniel Silva. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Cover design by Milan Bozic
Cover photographs © David Noton Photography/Alamy Stock Photo (landscape); © robertharding/Alamy Stock Photo (sky)
first edition
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
Digital Edition JULY 2024 ISBN: 978-0-06-338424-8
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-338420-0
About the Publisher
The story is set in the picturesque and often enigmatic region of Cornwall, England, and follows a captivating murder investigation that unravels amid the region's rugged landscapes and historic charm.
