The Collector (Gabriel Allon #23) by Daniel Silva

In the Amalfi villa of a murdered South African shipping tycoon, the Carabinieri have made a startling discovery - a secret vault containing an empty frame and stretcher matching the dimensions of the world's most valuable missing painting. The commander of the Art Squad asks restorer and legendary spy Gabriel Allon to quietly track down the artwork before the trail goes cold.

'Isn't that your job?'
'Finding stolen paintings? Technically speaking, yes. But you're much better at it than we are.'

The painting is The Concert by Johannes Vermeer, one of thirteen artworks stolen from a Boston museum in 1990. With the help of a most unlikely ally, a beautiful Danish computer hacker and professional thief, Gabriel follows the painting's trail to a man with close ties to the highest level of Russian power - code-named the Collector.

The missing masterpiece is the lynchpin of a conspiracy that, if successful, could plunge the world into a conflict of apocalyptic proportions. To foil the plot, Gabriel must carry out a daring heist of his own, with millions of lives hanging in the balance.

Elegant, meticulously plotted, and filled with a cast of unforgettable characters, The Collector moves swiftly from the graceful canals of Venice to the windswept coast of northern Denmark to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia -- and, finally, to a heart-pounding climax in Russia as current as tomorrow's headlines.