Russia has never been so unstable as when an assassin begins eliminating key political figures in the midst of the presidential election campaign. The only one who knows who is behind the assassinations is Anthony Bitters, a retired Scotland Yard detective. Even he, however, doesn't know the killer's true identity or what he looks like and can only refer to him by his nom de guerre "Matisse." The only hints are left by Matisse himself in the form of his assassination paintings, each of which reveals a tantalizingly enigmatic facet of his personality and past. Eventually a sort of self-portrait emerges, but only for those with the skill to see. Now, after nearly thirty years of trying, Bitters has one last chance to run down a personal demon, a phantom who has eluded not just him and Scotland Yard, but western security agencies around the world.Will Bitters succeed and at what cost? Russia is in the throes of a collective insanity where intermittent sightings of one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse vie with the sensational political murders for the public's attention. The nation could implode at any moment. Nothing, however, is of any consequence to Bitters other than to bring the hunt that began so long ago to a crashing halt.
