Rome: In the small church of Santa Giuliana, a magnificent Caravaggio altarpiece disappears without a trace in the middle of the night.
Paris: In the basement vault of the Malevich Society, the curator is shocked to discover the disappearance of the Society's great treasure, White on White by Suprematist painter Kasimir Malevich.
London: At the National Gallery of Modern Art, the museum's newest acquisition is stolen just hours after it was purchased for £6.3 million.
Three apparently unrelated art thefts have more in common than anyone imagines. As a renowned art investigator, a police inspector, and a Scotland Yard inspector take up their separate investigations, a trail of bizarre clues and intellectual puzzles reveals forgeries, over-paintings, and double crosses in an ever-deepening conspiracy.
About the Author :
Noah Charney is the author of the internationally bestselling novel The Art Thief and the founding director of the Association for Research into Crimes against Art, an international nonprofit think tank. His work in the field of art crime has been praised in such forums as the New York Times Magazine, Time, Vanity Fair, Vogue, BBC Radio, and NPR. Currently a professor of art history at the American University of Rome, he lives in Italy with his wife. Simon Vance (a.k.a. Robert Whitfield) is an award-winning actor and narrator. He has earned more than fifty Earphones Awards and won the prestigious Audie Award for best narration thirteen times. He was named Booklist's very first Voice of Choice in 2008 and has been named an AudioFile Golden Voice as well as an AudioFile Best Voice of 2009. He has narrated more than eight hundred audiobooks over almost thirty years, beginning when he was a radio newsreader for the BBC in London. He is also an actor who has appeared on both stage and television.
Review :
"Charney crafts an intellectual masterpiece in this work that sweeps through three of the worlds most art-filled cities. This novel is a witty, fast-paced page-turner full of artistic symbolism and insider knowledge about legendary art thefts, forgeries, and secret engravings."
-- "IndieBound"
"Hilarious! Delicious! This deftly plotted mystery is filled with art and French food and delightful heroines and heroes...Simon Vance uses rich accents to create a believable Gallic atmosphere as he 'ooo-la-las!' his way through a series of gastronomic adventures, making listeners' mouths water at the same time that their sides ache with laughter."
-- "AudioFile"
"A sprawling tapestry of deceit, honor, love, and triumph...this book will entertain you from the first page to the last."
-- "Seattle Post-Intelligencer"
"Debut author Noah Charney enjoys a unique vantage point from which to spin his tale of art-world intrigue...Charney is a real-life version of his novel's hero Gabriel Coffin...A mixture of inside information on the art market and lively art history (including four actual lectures, all of them brilliantly devised) brings the novel very close to nonfiction territory."
-- "BookPage"
