Customer Reviews

The Titian Committee

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Iain Pears lives up to his modern day Agatha Christie title with a particular twist on writing about beautiful places. In fact, great places are the focus of his Art History Mystieries series, like Paris, London, Rome, and lots more of Rome, Los Angeles and other five star places like that. As far as the murder mystery in each book's plot, like "The Titian Committee", the story is as much about Venice (place) and how this high brow Titian committee credentials master works than it is about the dead body discovered in the first chapter. Reading a Pears novel is
worth challenging a few college credits in art history, only tons more fun. Still, even with the "opposites attract" characters of the often morose Jonathon Argyle, who lives up to his very predictable last name, and his risk taking love Gloria Di Stafano, "The Titian Committee" isn't quite as memorable as the other books in this effervecent mystery series. Sometimes, the plot becomes just too cumbersome to make sense. Nevertheless, I wouldn't want to miss reading it, if only to keep up with the lively antics of the hero and heroine- especially, to find out if they ever plan on taking their relationship beyond the Panda bear dance they play out in their comic/drama experiences. Overall, "The Titian Committee" does not stand alone in The Art History Mysteries, but it's a good link with the others. "The Raphael Affair" is still the best in the series with "Death and Restoration" a close second. Of course, it will likely be a long time before another book will compare with the intellectual stimulation of "An Instance of the Fingerpost", a first rate Pears mystery, but not in the line up of the Art History Mysteries series.

A murder mystery set in Venice, revolving around art history, featuring two immensely appealing sleuths -- what could be bad?

Somehow, most everything aside from the two lead characters. Flavia and Johnathan are witty and charming throughout. But Venice never comes across, the mystery lies flat on the page in a serious of increasingly tedious interviews with stick figure supporting characters, and the art history element remains a barely there bit of background color.

Pears is a very talented writer, his An Instance of the Fingerpost an ambitious and vastly entertaining historical novel. Is he just no longer interested in these slight mysteries?

I gave this yawner three stars simply due to the setting. I love Venice. That,however, is where my interest in this little volume ends. I could not bring myself to care, positively or negatively, about any of the characters. I found myself more interested in what they ordered for lunch or dinner than in the "plot". Perhaps, to be fair, I should have read an earlier installation of the adventures of Flavia et al prior to this one. Maybe...but I think not. I would suggest the potential reader skip this one and opt for one of the Donna Leon mysteries instead.

Pardon me for disagreeing with the other reviewers. The plot actually was interestesting with promising but not fully developed complexities. The correlation of modern and ancient events is pleasing. On the negative side, there are some odd inconsistencies such as Flavia getting seasick on the Grand Canal one minute and having a strong stomach a few pages later. I found the characters a bit shallow. And most disappointing, all the characters, whether Italian, Dutch, American or English all spoke the same unmistakeably English idiom even though the description of the characters tries to give them varied language abilities. Even though the setting is Venice this is a thoroughly English cozy.

This is the third book I've read by Iain Pears. It is entertaining and fun to read, but of the three art history mysteries I've read so far, this one was the most difficult to follow. There were a number of characters that seemed to meld together after awhile, and the subplot involving the portrait in the Marchesa's home makes the read a bit slower. But, as always, Jonathan and Flavia are fun characters, and the references to art history are plentiful.

The characters developed in this series, Flavia, Argyll and Bonnano, make this and other art history mysteries easy to read and enjoyable. But the plot twists and pages of description seem more designed to fill pages and don't really add to the character development. That said, these are good short reads -- ideal for plane flights and even insomnia. This one won't keep you awake.

This is the second book I've read by Pears, the first being "Death and Restoration," which was quite good by the way. This book wasn't as good. The suspects are too numerous and too similiar for the reader to distinguish from each other, the investigation seemed to take far too long with very little direction until the end, and the historical sub-plot was a bit far-fetched for my own art historical background.

The two stars are for the great main characters: Flavia, Jonathon, and Bottando. Well rounded, fully developed, quirky, and able to play off each other quite well, they carry the book along. The plot, unfortunately, doesn't.

I'd only reccommend this book to diehard Pears fans.

Just as enjoyable as the first of the Art History Mysteries ( The Raphael Affair), this book has convinced me to read the rest of the series. The author has an excellent sense of place (in this case Venice), character and storyline. I thought the conclusion a tad muddled, but I really like the art history that forms the backbone of the tale. Those with strong medieval/Renaissance history will have a better chance than I did at guessing the ending.