In the early 1970s a reclusive artist and philosopher disappears in Paris after completing a fantastic series of canvases that trace the rise and fall of empires. Eventually his bloated body is dragged from the Seine. The knowledge and insight die with him. Years later, Claude Chiragi, a graduate student in Montreal receives a mysterious painting and senses the relevance of the theory embedded in the artwork. His curiosity is instantaneously aroused, and he soon launches a global search for clues that will help him understand the message, while unraveling the mystery of the artist's fate. Embedded in the paintings are tell-tale historical clues, mysteriously coded, that predict imperial entropy in the future--from economic collapse and cultural decadence to an imminent coup d'etat against civil society. Fourth Canvas is a gripping tale about the rise and fall of empires. Kidnappings, killings, undercover conspiracy and a trek back into the historical ancestral roots of one of the main characters, lend to a novel that spans many continents, several stimulating personalities, and a diverse range of nationalities. Claude loses his family and friends in the course of his adventure, but in the end he understands and embraces the message in the Fourth Canvas. Woven within the imagination of this hero's journey is a fabric of ideas, a latticework to stimulate the reader's political perspective.