- Hardcover: 279 pages
- Publisher: Newmarket Press; Reprint edition (July 1 1998)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1557043523
- ISBN-13: 978-1557043528
- Product Dimensions: 23.7 x 16.1 x 2.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 535 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Library Journal
Published as a paperback original in 1990, this title unfortunately floundered. Swan, however, has since found success with his 1997 novel The Cezanne Chase (LJ 3/1/97). Like that title, this offers a mystery involving art fakery, in this case some less-than-genuine early sketches of the Mona Lisa, which must be sniffed out by Scotland Yard's Jack Oxby. With Cezanne a hit, this will undoubtedly find a larger audience now.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Following The Czanne Chase (1997)--the debut of Inspector John Oxby, of C13, the CID's Art and Antiquities Squad-- Newmarket has reprinted Oxby's debut, originally published in 1990 as a mass-market paperback. Following three years of intensive preparation, well-fed art dealer Jonas Kalem is ready to offer to the world the discovery he's long been hinting at: a new page from the sketchbooks of Leonardo da Vinci, with others perhaps to follow. The first drawing, a study for the Mona Lisa accompanied by notes in Leonardo's distinctive left-handed writing, is worth millions, or would be if it hadn't been drawn within the month by gifted forger Curtis Stiehl, whose recent release from prison had closed the circle of Kalem's hand-picked colleagues in the fraud. Retired art historian Giorgio Burri has been waiting to start the ball rolling on authenticating the bogus drawings; unwitting American chemist Eleanor Shepard has been spending a year in Florence looking for likely sources of 500-year-old paper and charcoal; and Kalem's light-fingered assistant Tony Waters stands ready for whatever crasser skullduggery his boss may command, beginning with borrowing an authentic Leonardo drawing from the Windsor Library so that Stiehl can quickly make a closer study of the master's technique. The theft from the library goes off with all the clockwork precision of a good TV movie, but an unexpected glitch--the result of a police officer's incredible indiscretion--brings C13 into the picture for a series of cat-and-mouse chases that range from New York to Lake Como, where a showdown between Oxby's colleague, Supt. Walter Deats, and Kalem's troops provides a rousing, if unsurprising, denouement. Crammed with information on everything from Leonardo's pigments to the Royal Family's art holdings, though competently colorless in its own dishonor-among-thieves caper. (Book-of-the-Month Club featured alternate selection) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Some Great Settings,
By
This review is from: Da Vinci Deception (Paperback)
I have to say that I actually enjoyed this story. Multi millionaire, Jonas Kalem puts together an art fraud gang to try to create an authentic looking Da Vinci sketch of the Mona Lisa. There's lots of action, a few twists and turns and some great settings. I do admit the author got a few facts wrong, but the story itself is interesting enough to forgive him for that.The characterizations are good. I found myself actually rooting for a couple of the members of the gang--totally innocent Eleanor Shepard and the paroled counterfeiter, Curtis Stiehl; as well as the main detective, Walter Deats. I do agree it shouldn't be billed as a "Jack Oxby novel". He really only makes a couple of appearances in the whole thing. And it's not really a mystery since we're informed of everything as we go along. Those statements are misleading so I'm taking off a couple of points. Just the same it was a fun read.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Airport reading at best,
By A Customer
This review is from: Da Vinci Deception (Paperback)
Wow, this book is dreadful. The prose is painfully bad, the dialogue is excruciating, the characterization falls flat, and the plot loses any tenuous claim to credibility unless the reader is willing to assume that each character is stupider than the last.Occasionally such a book can be rescued by an interesting detective. Alas, I have no idea whether this is one of them; because although this book is billed as an Inspector Jack Oxby novel, when I finally gave up reading on page 300 of a 378-page book, Inspector Oxby had made one brief appearance and garnered two passing references. I assume he actually does take part in the plot at some point, but I can't vouch for it. The cover blurb says "Fans of Ian Pears' art mysteries will enjoy the lavish detail." Fans of Ian Pears would do well to reread Ian Pears and stay well away from this charmless hash.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Passes the time, but it's not Ian Pears,
By A Customer
This review is from: Da Vinci Deception (Paperback)
This book has silly mistakes of reference, stodgy exposition about the art that reads like it was intended for a textbook, and a pretty predictable plot. It's a police procedural (not a mystery) and the procedure is generally ok, but none of the characters is well developed. It's passingly interesting for an airplane, but not much more. Try Instance of the Finger Post instead.
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