From Daniel Silva, the internationally acclaimed #1 New York Times
bestselling author, comes a timely and explosive new thriller featuring
art restorer and legendary spy Gabriel Allon.
Viktor Orlov had a longstanding appointment with death. Once Russia's
richest man, he now resides in splendid exile in London, where he has
waged a tireless crusade against the authoritarian kleptocrats who have
seized control of the Kremlin. His mansion in Chelsea's exclusive Cheyne
Walk is one of the most heavily protected private dwellings in London.
Yet somehow, on a rainy summer evening, in the midst of a global
pandemic, Russia's vengeful president finally manages to cross Orlov's
name off his kill list.
Before him was the receiver from his landline telephone, a half-drunk
glass of red wine, and a stack of documents....
The documents are contaminated with a deadly nerve agent. The
Metropolitan Police determine that they were delivered to Orlov's home
by one of his employees, a prominent investigative reporter from the
anti-Kremlin Moskovskaya Gazeta. And when the reporter slips from
London hours after the killing, MI6 concludes she is a Moscow Center
assassin who has cunningly penetrated Orlov's formidable defenses.
But Gabriel Allon, who owes his very life to Viktor Orlov, believes his
friends in British intelligence are dangerously mistaken. His desperate
search for the truth will take him from London to Amsterdam and
eventually to Geneva, where a private intelligence service controlled by
a childhood friend of the Russian president is using KGB-style "active
measures" to undermine the West from within. Known as the Haydn Group,
the unit is plotting an unspeakable act of violence that will plunge an
already divided America into chaos and leave Russia unchallenged. Only
Gabriel Allon, with the help of a brilliant young woman employed by the
world's dirtiest bank, can stop it.
Elegant and sophisticated, provocative and daring, The Cellist
explores one of the preeminent threats facing the West today--the
corrupting influence of dirty money wielded by a revanchist and reckless
Russia. It is at once a novel of hope and a stark warning about the
fragile state of democracy. And it proves once again why Daniel Silva is
regarded as his generation's finest writer of suspense and international
intrigue.
