[1] It is the tenth in the Gabriel Allon series, based in the world of Israeli intelligence.

In this novel, Silva returns to the historical milieu of the second Allon novel, The English Assassin (2002), that is, the looting of artworks by Nazi leaders and the subsequent appropriation of the art by Swiss bankers with whom the loot was deposited.

Each year, between four and six billion dollars' worth of art and antiquities are stolen, ranking it as the fourth-most lucrative crime behind drug trafficking, arms dealing, and money laundering.

[3] Silva touched on arms trafficking when dealing with the crimes of Ivan Kharkov in The Defector and Moscow Rules.

Silva was also intrigued by the greed that drove people such as Bernie Madoff and he, and some other key figures in the Great Recession were the inspiration behind this book's villain, Martin Landesmann.