Two years have elapsed since Dexter Grant moved to Venice and found himself entangled in a web of murder and intrigue throughout Central Europe. The horrendous sequence of assignment killings perpetrated by a criminal mastermind known as Arete have resumed following two deaths in Palermo. Both killings will regenerate a covert police investigation team based in Padua and Rome in the search for Arete. Their search will reunite Dexter with Inspector Veronese in Venice and open up previously unresolved investigations, eventually revealing a mammoth conspiracy. Veronese along with the Padua team will also pursue the path of a psychopathic killer, assigned by Arete, who is determined to act out his deadly game of chess. The chase will once again bring together a powerful criminal cartel, who will embark on a subversive acquisition of illegal business from a clandestine Venetian sect, creating a complex and dangerous double cross scenario. In Pursuit of Arete is a formidable adventure of intrigue and murder, which provides the perfect sequel to Assignment Pellestrina by continuing to unfold a dangerous path of homicidal episodes and criminal activity. This second component of the narrative once again unfolds a group of Venetians, some of whom having decided to secrete their ill-gotten gains.