Author Daniel Silva storey begins with the appearance of a long lost Rembrandt painting. The painting then becomes a backdrop to a storey which unfolds layer by layer like peeling an onion, minus the tears.Gabriel Allon, an Israeli spy and assassin is engaged to recover the Rembrandt painting but the deeper he delves the more twists appear. Enter the CIA, MI5, MI6 and a plethora of other shady organisations to add a complexity to the tale as Allon masterminds a sting to unwind, what they discover to be, an international conspiracy and deception involving a web of shell interlinking companies making and selling dangerous products to extreme governments.