*** 1/2 - I've apparently been on an art thriller kick lately (The Art Thief and Murder at the National Gallery).Not that this is surprising, given my fondness for art (and thrillers). As far as this one goes... there's not much art history to it beyond the occasional reference. But it's not about Caravaggio! Aren't you proud?Anna Petrescu is the resident art expert for an unscrupulous bank which loans money at exorbitant interest rates in order to get their hands on various expensive artwork put up as collateral. She is also about to be fired for her recommendation that one of their clients sell her prized van Gogh to pay off her debt. Soon Anna finds herself involved in a string of murders, art thefts and double crosses as she attempts to sort out the mess - all with the FBI on her trail.
This is one of the few (the only?) novel I've read that is set during and amid the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11th. And to be honest, I'm not sure that was such a great choice - more importantly, I don't see WHY it needed to be set during Sept. 11th. A lot of people still feel very, very strongly about the 9/11 attacks. And although I thought Archer's description of the attacks was largely well-done (there were a few odd metaphors and blatant symbolism that struck me as a bit much), that entire episode really didn't tie into the rest of the plot for me. For one, Anna, our main character, was actually IN the North Tower when it was hit. But over the next two weeks, she travels merrily throughout the world with nary a nervous or emotional breakdown in sight... I mean, WOW. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to shake off a near-death experience that rocked the entire globe so lightly.
Once I got through the Sept. 11th section, things settled down to be more along the lines of a typical thriller. Anna is being trailed by a Romanian gymnast turned assassin and the ever-suspicious FBI (though I don't understand this so much as they don't have jurisdiction outside of the US). She hops through various cities always toting the bright-red case housing her stolen van Gogh:
She does a relatively decent job shaking her surveillance on occasion, but mostly she manages to evade both parties solely based on dumb luck. And she apparently has a ton of that... Unfortunately I didn't learn much here about art or art history, and I found the final showdown quite distasteful (couldn't she just have a knife held at her throat like a normal victim? *shudders*). There wasn't much new here, but it was a decent action thriller quite suitable as a fast-paced beach read (though I would avoid reading it on an airplane...).
Interested in other opinions?
0 comments:
Post a Comment