*The Lady in Gold by
Anne-Marie O'Connor is the spellbinding story of Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Adele
Bloch-Bauer, the beautiful, seductive Viennese Jewish salon hostess who sat
for it; the notorious artist who painted it; the now vanished
turn-of-the-century Vienna that shaped it; and the strange twisted fate that
befell it. O’Connor paints a striking portrait of Vienna’s from Fin de Siecle through the post-Nazi era to the return of the
masterpiece to the heirs of the original owner in 2009 when Ronald Lauder
bought it for $135 million a century after Klimt completed the society
portrait.
Dark Places by
Gillian Flynn isn’t up to the standard of her later Gone Girl, but shows the potential that will develop. Libby Day was
seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in “The Satan Sacrifice of
Kinnakee, Kansas.” Libby survived–and testified that her fifteen-year-old brother,
Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, Ben sits in prison, and troubled
Libby lives off the dregs of a trust created by well-wishers who’ve long
forgotten her. She visits her past, an incredibly unpleasant collection of
losers and other “dark places” to shed
light on what really happened.
*The Fallen Angel
by Daniel Silva begins in Rome, where Gabriel Allon, art restorer, assassin, spy, is called
upon to investigate a murder at the Vatican, one with potentially disastrous
repercussions. Allon jets around the
world to protect the Vatican, Israel and the world in a formulaic story that is both
engaging and almost believable. Daniel Silva’s thrilling universe of intrigue,
danger, and exceptional spy craft is one of the best in a crowded genre. The Philadelphia Inqurer concludes,
“The enigmatic Gabriel Allon remains one of the most intriguing heroes of any
thriller series.”
Standing in Another
Man’s Grave by Ian Rankin features the return of former Detective John Rebus
who has never shied away from lost
causes. Now he's back as a retired civilian, reviewing abandoned files and
never missing the opportunity to upset his bureaucratic bosses, have a nip of
the hard stuff or seeing missed connections in the cases of missing
women. Rankin has an international fan
base who raves about his ‘nuanced prose’, but I’m not a member of the group and
thought a little less nuance might have saved a couple of hundred pages.
