The violent death of a journalist leads secret agent Gabriel Allon to Russia. But this is not the grim Moscow of Soviet times, but a new Moscow, awash in oil wealth and in thrall to a new generation of rich Stalinists plotting to challenge an old enemy: the United States.

One such man is Ivan Kharkov, a former KGB colonel whose global empire is built on a lucrative and deadly business. Kharkov is an arms dealer - and he's about to sell Russia's most dangerous weapon to al-Qaeda. Unless Allon can learn the time and place of delivery, the world will suffer its deadliest terror attack since 9/11.

Daniel Silva is the 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, Price of Fire, The Messenger, The Secret Servant,Moscow Rules and The Defector. He lives in Washington, DC, with his wife, NBC News Today correspondent Jamie Gangel, and their two children, Lily and Nicholas.