Portrait of an Unknown Woman

Portrait of an Unknown Woman is Dan Silva's 25th novel and his 22nd Gabrial Allon novel. He has also written one standalone novel and two books in his Michael Osborne series. At 448 pages, Portrait it is just 2 pages short of qualifying as a chunkster for the Chunkster Challenge.  The book was published on July 19, 2022.

The publisher's summary:

Legendary spy and art restorer Gabriel Allon has at long last severed ties with Israeli intelligence and settled quietly in Venice, the only place where he has ever truly known peace. His beautiful wife, Chiara, has taken over the day-to-day management of the Tiepolo Restoration Company, and their two young children are discreetly enrolled in a neighborhood scuola elementare. For his part, Gabriel spends his days wandering the streets and canals of the watery city, bidding farewell to the demons of his tragic, violent past.

But when the eccentric London art dealer Julian Isherwood asks Gabriel to investigate the circumstances surrounding the rediscovery and lucrative sale of a centuries-old painting, he is drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse where nothing is as it seems.

Gabriel soon discovers that the work in question, a portrait of an unidentified woman attributed to Sir Anthony van Dyck, is almost certainly a fiendishly clever fake. To find the mysterious figure who painted it—and uncover a multibillion-dollar fraud at the pinnacle of the art world—Gabriel conceives one of the most elaborate deceptions of his career. If it is to succeed, he must become the very mirror image of the man he seeks: the greatest art forger the world has ever known.

Stylish, sophisticated, and ingeniously plotted, Portrait of an Unknown Woman is a wildly entertaining journey through the dark side of the art world—a place where unscrupulous dealers routinely deceive their customers and deep-pocketed investors treat great paintings as though they were just another asset class to be bought and sold at a profit. From its elegant opening to the shocking twists of its climax, the novel is a tour de force of storytelling and one of the finest pieces of heist fiction ever written. And it is still more proof that, when it comes to international intrigue and suspense, Daniel Silva has no equal.

I LOVED this novel! Daniel Silva has never written a book that wasn't fantastic and Portrait follows his successful ride. The plot is based upon the true stories of art forgers John Myatt, John Drewe, Guy Ribes and Wolfgang Beltracchi. John Myatt painted more than 250 forgeries that John Drewe sold through well established London art galleries. Ribes was able to paint approximately 1,000 Chagall and Picasso forgeries that his network sold. His German counterpart, Beltracchi, sold forgeries through all of the prominent auction houses. All four of these men have a matching character in Portrait. Most of their forgeries are still in circulation today.  

The novel was spell-binding. I read this chunky book in one sitting late one evening. I am apprehensive, though, about the retirement of Allon from the spy business. His work for the Office has catapulted the series into fame and I don't see how the series can continue much longer if he no longer works as a spy. In this installment of the series, Allon is resting after his retirement but will soon begin working as an art restorer for his wife Chiara who owns the Tiepelo Restoration Company. With Allon being sixtysomething years old and retired, where does this series go?  

5 out of 5 stars.

Stacking the Shelves #19

I am so excited for the publication of The Applecreek Announcement on Monday. It is the third book in the Creektown Discoveries trilogy by Wanda Brunstetter. I loved the two earlier books in the series The Sugarcreek Surprise and The Walnut Creek Wish and have high hopes for the next book in the series.

The Applecreek Announcement takes place in Apple Creek, Ohio. Here we have piano teacher and artist Andrea Wagner and her fascination with painting the rural Amish landscapes around her home. She has made it to her thirties feeling like she has had a charmed life and finally has fallen in love with Brandon Prentice, a local veterinarian. But then she discovers she was adopted and all she thought she knew about herself has crumbled. Andrea becomes so fixated on finding her birth mother that she pushes Brandon away, so she writes to the "Dear Caroline" column in the newspaper for romance advice. What will Andrea lose before she finds herself again?

I have pre-ordered a copy of this novel and cannot wait to get started reading. Wanda Brunstetter is my favorite Amish novelist and I always look forward to reading her stories.

Book of the Month: July

I have a four way tie for book of the month.  I could not choose just one book from among Kaikeyi, Beasts of a Little Land, My Wife is Missing and The Good Wife of Bath. All of these novels are rated way over 5 out of 5 stars. With the exception of My Wife is Missing, all of the books are historical fiction. 

The story of Kaikeyi expands on the character's life that is mentioned in the Hindu script Ramayana. Likewise, The Good Wife of Bath expands on the story in the The Canterbury Tales. Beasts of a Little Land is different in that it gives the history of Korea in the entire 20th century through the eyes of 4 main characters. My Wife is Missing is a gripping suspense novel that had me guessing throughout the story.

Instead of repeating what I wrote in the reviews, check out the review links above if you haven't read them yet.

Book Cover of the Month

I just love the cover of Kaikeyi. The orange and black colors are striking as is the silhouette of the character Kaikeyi. Lisa Marie Pompilio is the artist who designed the cover. She is the Associate Art Director at Orbit Books and Redhook in Brooklyn, NY. Pompilio designs covers for books of all genres and uses Photoshop to create her designs. 

In this installment of my book cover of the month series I want to talk about the book cover artist. I have wanted for awhile to write posts about book cover designers but didn't know how to approach the topic. Book cover of the month is a good way to get started.

Pompilio grew up in a family with a printing shop business. She worked with the linotype and read books at the library across the street from the business. It was at the library where she decided that she wanted to design book covers. After working with horses until she was 25, she went to art school and graduated from the School of Visual Arts. Pompilio had internships with photographers and at The Onion. Her first publishing job was with St. Martin's Press where she designed multi-genre book covers for 8 years. Her next job was with Orbit Books where she works today. 

The publisher will decide whether the book cover will be photographic or illustrated. Pompilio then produces several designs and presents them at the weekly cover meeting at Orbit. In these meetings the cover design can either be approved or require further development. 

To see other book covers that she has designed, check out her Twitter feed here.  Some of these covers are so pretty that I am going to have to read the books.

Amazona

Amazona was published on May 3, 2022. It is a graphic novel by Canizales that concerns an indigenous group in Colombia. Andrea, a young Indigenous Colombian woman, has returned to the land she calls home. Only nineteen years old, she comes to mourn her lost child, carrying a box in her arms. She also comes with another mission. Andrea has hidden a camera upon herself. If she can capture evidence of the illegal mining that displaced her family, it will mark the first step toward legally reclaiming their land. 

Amazona is advertised as a socially conscious thriller from graphic novelist Canizales. I wouldn't call it a thriller but it was definately written to get the attention of readers who like socially conscious books. I thought it was a little dull, though. It could have been written as a reportage comic, a la Joe Sacco, but it was written as fiction. 

The story shows the indigenous people being taken away from their beautiful rainforest to live in tiny apartments. Andrea's family of 38 people all lived in a one room 600 square foot apartment. The illustrations were done expertly here.  We see the apartment in the eyes of an Ikea decorated home. Where you would see an Ikea lamp are 5 people on the floor. In an other part of the home where you might see an Ikea rug, are 8 people lying on the floor. This analogy to Ikea was fantastic. It helped me to see what the real situation was for these indigenous folks. The pages were colored in either reds or graphic pencil. The pages showing Andrea in the rainforest are done in shades of red. The pages showing her in her apartment are done in shades of black. The purpose for the coloring is obvious.

Illustrations aside, the story was not very suspenseful and is definitely not a thriller.  I am rating it 3 out of 5 stars.

A Visit to Moscow

A Visit to Moscow is a graphic memoir of Rabbi Rafael Grossman's trip to the Soviet Union in 1965.  He went there with a group of American rabbis from the Rabbinical Council of America. Rabbi Grossman led a congregation in Long Branch, NJ and was chosen for the trip because of his Eastern European ancestry. 

The story itself is quite short, 63 pages. 12 more pages follow with explanations about the trip, a saga about Soviet Jews, a Note from the author and the Illustrator's Sketchbook. This is not a memoir with alot of action. Grossman probably spent less than an hour with the Jewish man he wanted to see. Meyer Gurwitz was the brother of one of Grossman's acquaintances, Meyer's sister Bela.  She had not heard from her brother in over ten years and was worried about him. After feigning a headache at the Moscow hotel where Grossman was staying, he got in a taxi and traveled to Meyer's home. There Grossman found out that Meyer had a ten year old son who had never left the one room home he had been born in. Meyer explained that if he let his son outside that the KGB would force him into a Soviet school where he would lose his Jewish heritage or worse, be killed.

While the story was interesting, it could hardly be described as scintillating reading. I enjoyed the artwork by Yevgenia Nayberg. Nayberg watched Soviet noir films and reviewed photos from the 1960s to obtain a visual direction. She used subdued blue, green and yellow colors in the drawings. 

3 out of 5 stars.

Always Never

Always Never is the story of two old friends who spent one night together 40 years ago. The story is told in reverse order with the first pages devoted to their reunion. Each chapter a prequel until the final chapter which shows them meeting for the first time. The book consists of one volume. It was originally published in France in 2020 but was published in English in May 2021.

The story begins with Ana and Zeno finally retiring and giving their romance a chance to bloom while they both still have time left. Each chapter steps further back and shows the two lovers touch and go courting through phone calls and letters. Ana didn't wait long after Zeno left to find herself a husband. Zeno was a drifter who spent time on boats while he worked on his dissertation.  He left behind a family owned bookshop that Ana wanted to destroy for a public works project. It took Zeno 40 years to complete the dissertation and as soon as he finished it he looked up Ana. Ana had just retired as the mayor of an Italian city that is remarkably similar to Venice. 

The artwork consists of line drawings with bright color schemes. The drawings have a French flair even though the story takes place in Italy. The color scheme changed according the location that scenes were happening in. Pages depicting sunny days are colored in orange, a greenhouse location is colored in green and night time and rainy scenes are done in blues and purples.

Always Never is a fun senior romance. Highly recommended.

One Girl Missing

One Girl Missing is the 11th Detective Gina Harte crime thriller from Carla Kovach but the first that I have read. I must say that I have been missing out on alot of good reading. One Girl Missing was a fantastic read. The series takes place in Britain during the present era and this installment of the series was published on March 4, 2022.

The publisher's summary:  

Five-year-old Cally waits in her pretty pink bedroom for the sound of the front door opening and her mother’s sweet voice in the hall. But when the doorbell finally rings, and Cally creeps out of bed to peer through the banister, a large man in uniform is all she sees. Her mother is missing...

Teacher Annabel Braddock was last seen drinking at the local pub with her best friend, Jennifer. Witnesses saw tears running down her cheeks, and friends say she was having problems with a colleague at work, and that her marriage had broken down.

But as the two women hugged goodbye, neither noticed the car speeding towards them. As the dust settled, Jennifer lay unconscious on the ground and Annabel was nowhere to be seen. She’d never abandon her little girl, so did someone snatch her?

As family crowd around Jennifer’s hospital bed, hoping she’ll wake up, police visit Annabel’s home and her inconsolable daughter, Cally, tells them she had seen a man outside staring into her room as she climbed into bed that evening. Was it her childish imagination, or had someone been watching Annabel’s home?

When Jennifer finally opens her eyes and tells the police what happened that night, it’s clear there are plenty of people with a reason to harm Annabel. With an unpredictable husband, a colleague who denies harassing her and a neighbour who seems to know her every move, could she be in imminent danger? As the hours turn to days, will little Cally ever see her precious mother again? Or will she be next?

This book is unputdownable. I read it in one sitting and it seemed that it took no time to read it, thanks to the super fast pace. The investigation into the hit and run had many layers. While there was alot happening in the story, it was not difficult to follow. There were numerous twists, turns, and red herrings that kept me wanting to keep reading.

The setting was not stated but with all of the British slang words and the division of job titles in the police department, I knew that it had to be in Britain. Some of the slang I couldn't figure out but the meanings were somewhat obvious from the context. The main character is, of course, Gina Harte, and her co-workers are the secondary characters. It's odd, but the two female victims were not discussed much as characters. They figured in the investigation but that is about all we read about them. 

If you like crime thrillers or police procedurals, you will want to read this novel.  5 out of 5 stars.

Mid-year Status of Challenges

I have done pretty well on my reading challenges this year. There are three challenges that I have not started yet: Vintage Scattergories, Six Shooter Challenge and the Creativity Challenge. I may forego them however. There are three challenges that I have completed and they are the Finishing the Series, What's in a Name Challenge and Cruisin' Through the Cozies Challenge.  There are at least two more cozies that I want to read next month though. For all of the others here are my stats.

Calendar of Crime:  7 out of 12 books read

Chunkster:  11 books read, no limits

Cloak and Dagger:  33 out of 35 books read

Color Coded:  7 out of 9 books read

Comics and Graphic Novels:  25 out of 52 books read

Historical Fiction:  19 out of 25 books read

Library Love:  13 out of 24 books read

Monthly Key Word:  7 out of 12 books read

New Release:  28 out of 30 books read

Nonfiction Reader: 1 book read, no limits

As you can see I am close to completing all of my challenges!

Regarding the Matter of Oswald's Body

Regarding the Matter of Oswald's Body is a 5 part online comic published by BOOM! Studios in November 2021. It is a crime thriller set in Texas where President Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald. The Kennedy assassination has spawned many conspiracy theories: mafia involvement, the second gunman, government cover-up… but the most important chapter of this sordid tale may just be the theory that the body buried at Oswald’s Rose Hill gravesite is not actually Lee Harvey himself. Meet the ragtag group of “useful idiots” – a wannabe cowboy from Wisconsin, a Buddy Holly-idolizing (former) car thief, a world-weary civil rights activist ready for revolution, and a failed G-Man who still acts the part – who are unwittingly brought together to clean up the crime of the century, and specifically deal with the matter of Oswald’s body.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this story. I know most of the conspiracy theories surrounding the Kennedy assassination but never heard of the one about Oswald not being buried in his grave at Rose Hill Cemetery in Fort Worth, TX. I searched Wikipedia regarding this conspiracy to see what information was out there about Oswald's body being stolen. I found that his body was exhumed 18 years after his death as there were questions whether a Soviet spy, who was an Oswald lookalike, was buried there instead. The body in the grave was Oswald though. The characters in the story indirectly show that they killed Kennedy and used Oswald as the fall guy.  Jack Ruby, who is the person who shot Oswald, was not mentioned in the comic. I thought that was strange. The premise for the story was good. However, the author played too much with the facts and we don't need any additional false theories about Kennedy assassination out there. 

A paperback copy of the series will be published on August 30, 2022 by BOOM! Studios. I don't think that I will be buying it for my print collection. 3 out of 5 stars. 

Stacking the Shelves #18

There a couple of graphic novels that will be published later this year that I have pre-ordered. Roberto Saviano's I'm Still Alive will be published on October 11, 2022. The novel is the author's memoir of his life as a journalist whose mission is to expose and survive the mafia. The author lives in Italy and he uses literature and investigative reporting to tell the economic reality and business of the Camorra family. He has received death threats from the Casalene clan, a cartel of the Camorra, and since October 13, 2006 has lived under police protection. 

Invisible Wounds has also been written by a journalist, Jess Ruliffson. Ruliffson interviewed many returning soldiers of the Afghan and Iraq wars for five years. He met them wherever they were living, from Georgia kitchen tables and New York City libraries to dive bars in Mississippi. All of them were grappling with reconciling their wartime experiences and their post-war lives.  Some grappled with their gender and race also.

Guy DeLisle's World Record Holders is the book that I am anticipating the most. I have all of DeLisle's graphic travelogues and loved them. This book will be published on August 9, 2022.  It is a memoir of the author and has comic strips about his childhood and post-fame encounters with readers. One of the strips reveals DeLisle visiting an exhibition of his work where he is confronted by an angry spouse who blames him for destroying her marriage. He is one of the few graphic novelists that every comic fan will read. I expect that the book will be great.

Vann Nath: Painting the Khmer Rouge

This is a graphic biography of Vann Nath, a Cambodian painter. Nath used his art to fight against the tyranny of the Khmer Rouge. In 1978, the young painter was arrested by the Khmer Rouge, the violent and totalitarian Communist Party of Kampuchea that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. Imprisoned in the infamous Tuol Sleng prison, better known as S-21, painting became synonymous with survival for him. Ordered, like many Cambodian artists and craftsmen, to put his talent to use to glorify his captors, upon his release he continued painting, this time, to remember and pay tribute to the victims of Pol Pot's regime.  The only reason that he survived is because the man running the prison needed someone to paint of portrait of their supreme leader, Pol Pot. Nath became the most celebrated survivor of the prison. He died in 2011.

I learned much from this book. I knew that the Khmer Rouge were brutal but had never read about any specifics from their reign of terror. Vann Nath's graphic depictions of the torture he experienced in S21, which he painted after his release, brought it to life. The story is unsavory but sometimes the truth is brutal. At the back of the book are copies of the paintings Nath painted for the regime during his incarceration. I like his style and wonder what subjects he would have painted if his life had not been so difficult. 

If you love history, you should read this book. 5 out of 5 stars.

Booth

I had high hopes for this book about the family of James Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln.  It started out dull and continued to be so throughout the book. The family dynamics were interesting, though, but I felt that it could have been written more exciting than it was.

The publisher's summary:

In 1822, a secret family moves into a secret cabin some thirty miles northeast of Baltimore, to farm, to hide, and to bear ten children over the course of the next sixteen years. Junius Booth—breadwinner, celebrated Shakespearean actor, and master of the house in more ways than one—is at once a mesmerizing talent and a man of terrifying instability. One by one the children arrive, as year by year, the country draws frighteningly closer to the boiling point of secession and civil war.

As the tenor of the world shifts, the Booths emerge from their hidden lives to cement their place as one of the country’s leading theatrical families. But behind the curtains of the many stages they have graced, multiple scandals, family triumphs, and criminal disasters begin to take their toll, and the solemn siblings of John Wilkes Booth are left to reckon with the truth behind the destructively specious promise of an early prophecy.

Booth is a startling portrait of a country in the throes of change and a vivid exploration of the ties that make, and break, a family.

It was interesting to read that John Wilkes always had tendencies toward supporting southern causes, including slavery. He was the only member of his family to not associate with the family's black employees. All of their employees were free as the patriarch was an abolitionist. While the story was a little boring, I am glad that I read the book. It is important to know all of the factors that made John Wilkes Booth kill Lincoln. The author stated in an interview that she did not want to write a book about John Wilkes but rather about the family.  She felt that John Wilkes craved attention and she did not want to give him the satisfaction of a book about him. Thus, his birth does not happen until page 59. When I read that he tortured animals, beat people up and loved guns from an early age, I realized that he was always going to turn out to be an assassin or serial killer.  We all have read the news stories about killers and their childhoods, which predict their future. With an absent father and a mother not interested in raising her children, John Wilkes fit the recipe for becoming a dangerous person.

Booth is an enlightening book about a dysfunctional family that changed the course of American history.  3 out of 5 stars.