Despite retiring from the espionage business, he still finds himself in the midst of international crimes and misdemeanors! On his way home from his restoring of a Titian in a church in Venice, he sees a corpse floating in one of the canals. His investigative prowess aids in his learning that she was an art restoration specialist whose most recent place of employment was the Vatican Museum. The painting on which she had been working covered another painting that she believed had been painted by Leonardo DaVinci. Because Allon was close to the Pope, he called in those connections and flew to Rome only to find out that the painting in question had been stolen from the Vatican's collection.
The crux of the novel is to find out who has stolen the painting, the theft of which has got to be an inside job. Allon relies on several of his compatriots to solve the crime, which goes deeper than the theft itself. Those implicated include members of the Camorra, a man impesonating a priest who has a close relationship to the Pope, and even a Cardinal. Using his skills as an expert restorer, Allon paints a new copy of the DaVinci and masterminds a heist of it to uncover the real culprits. In doing so, he calls on his associates from past novels, including Ingrid Johansen, a master computer hacker and thief, Martin Landesmann, and Veronica Marchese, director of the Tuscan Museum and a very close friend of the Pope. Also reappearing in the novel are Sarah Bancroft and Julian Isherwood who manage and own a London art gallery and Sarah's husband Christopher Keller, a former FBI operative.
This latest novel in the Allon series was a super enjoyable read - as much a travelogue as a mystery or espionage narrative. The plot was crafted well and the characters, all 42 of them, had a critical role in the crime or its resolution. And now will wait until July for the next installment.
