I love Oliver Banks' first book, The Rembrandt Panel (1980). It's actually one of my favorite mysteries, with it's mix of action and art history. This one leans more to the action side, as "art cop" Amos Hatcher heads to Italy to avenge a friend's death and discover the whereabouts of some missing paintings stolen from an upcoming Caravaggio exhibit. When he arrives in Italy, he's told to go home and finds that art crime is so expected in Italy it's almost a non-issue. What's good about the book is that is takes Hatcher down the Caravaggio rabbit hole, so if you have any interest in art history, you'll get a fascinating lesson. Both books made me look at the artists discussed in a new way. The plot in this one is much shaggier than the one in The Rembrandt Panel, though, and it's a little all over the place. I still enjoyed the art bits but 40+ years later, the plot doesn't hold up so well - not does Hatcher's macho attitude, disguised in scholarly form.
Bought this book second hand while in Ashland for the OSF and needed something to read. I generally like mysteries and since they didn't have a huge selection picked this up.
The plot is both transparent and convoluted, and left me wondering why we had to go through all of these intervening pages just to get to the obvious ending.
It was written poorly and as a sequel left much to be desired in the recapping of the previous book, which was unnecessary most of the times it was brought into play.
Overall, not worth the 2.50 I paid for it, and certainly not worth the three hours I spent reading it.
The mystery world has so many sub-genres that a reader can pick and choose the nature of their reading experience. I like art-centric adventures and this was a pretty good one.
The rather hard-boiled art detective, Amos Hatcher, has a knack for seeking out other cynical, world-weary, erudite and under-employed acquaintances. This may seem a bit clich茅, but his characters are interesting and the villainy in this book was unique.
I was surprised that there were so few reviews of this book on GoodReads so I suspect that the book was not widely circulated. I found it at a library sale and would definitely be happy to read another fast-paced, readable mystery from this author.
Read it after The Rembrandt Panel and was not disappointed! I liked the Amos Hatcher character and the use of a fictional, international, mystery to learn more about art and art history. Very exciting and well paced! I felt it was possible that some later mystery/spy authors had read Banks and adopted the over-all style!
I read this book when it first came out in 1984 and just reread it. The atmosphere of Rome during the hectic days of the Red Brigade, the Mafia stranglehold and the general decline of services in the 1980s is rendered palpably. Equally palpable is the glorious legacy of Italian art. If you love Caravaggio like I do you will appreciate this art heist thriller.
A bit disappointed by this one. I expected that it would be as good as the first one but it wasn't. It had many boring parts and I actually skipped some pages when nothing happened.