In a thrilling new thriller from New York Times bestselling author Daniel Silva, Gabriel Allon embarks on a quest to find a stolen Vermeer masterpiece and uncovers a conspiracy that could bring the world to the brink of nuclear armageddon.
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At first it looked like an "ordinary" robbery and murder. However, when a Vincent van Gogh painting sought after for decades was found at the scene of the crime – in the luxury villa of a South African shipping tycoon in Amalfi, Italy – and circumstantial evidence that an even more rare painting was located there, it was Gabriel Allon's time. Although the legendary former head of the Israeli secret service lives in seclusion in Venice, where he is dedicated to restoring paintings, he accepts the offer to verify the authenticity of the found painting and find out what other painting was there.
The question is not who stole Johannes Vermeer's Concerto back then, thirty years ago, but who got hold of it now. And especially why.
With the help of a very unlikely ally, a beautiful Danish computer hacker and a professional thief, Gabriel soon discovers that there is a conspiracy behind everything, which in its outcome can threaten the whole world and plunge it into the cataclysm of nuclear war. That the leads lead to the very top of the Russian government, waging a criminal war in Ukraine, and to a man known as the Collector, who can tell the world of intelligence much more about everything that's going on. But the problem is that, just like in the case of the beautiful Danish hacker, in the case of the Collector, it is not possible to say unequivocally to what extent he is the culprit and to what extent the victim. But he too must become Allon's ally...