Six months after the dramatic conclusion of "Moscow Rules", character Gabriel has returned to Umbria to resume his honeymoon with his new wife, and restore a seventeenth-century altarpiece for the Vatican. But his idyllic world is once again thrown into turmoil with shocking news from London. The defector and former Russian intelligence officer Grigori Bulganov, who saved Gabriel’s life in Moscow, has vanished without a trace. British intelligence is sure he was a double agent all along, but Gabriel knows better. He also knows he made a promise.

Filled with breathtaking turns of plot and populated by a remarkable cast of characters, The Defector is more than the most explosive thriller of the year - It is a searing tale of love, vengeance and courage.