For Gabriel and his beautiful Venetian-born wife, Chiara, a pleasant weekend in London turns deadly when the newly retired operative spots a man exhibiting traits common to suicide bombers. But before Gabriel can prevent the attack, he is knocked to the pavement and can only watch as a scene from his nightmares unfolds.
Haunted by his failure to stop the massacre of innocents, Gabriel returns to his isolated cottage on the cliffs of Cornwall, until a summons brings him to Washington and he is drawn into a confrontation with the new face of global terror. At the center of the threat is an American-born cleric in Yemen to whom Allah has granted “a beautiful and seductive tongue.” A gifted deceiver, who was once a paid CIA asset, the mastermind is plotting a new wave of attacks.
Gabriel and his team devise a daring plan to destroy the network of death—from the inside—a gambit fraught with risk, both personal and professional. To succeed, Gabriel must reach into his violent past. A woman waits there—a reclusive Saudi heiress and art collector who can traverse the murky divide between Islam and the West. She is the daughter of an old enemy, a woman joined to Gabriel by a trail of blood. Together they form an unlikely and dangerous bond.
