by Marty Neumeier ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A
A thoroughly enjoyable blend of history and drama.
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A scientist and an art historian discover a document of great significance to art history and scheme to steal it to ensure it becomes public in Neumeier’s novel.
Mr. Dickson, a wealthy businessman, hires two experts—Artie, a retired art historian, and Scarlett, a young biophysicist—to authenticate a cache of art pieces found in an old townhouse in Northern Italy. They excitedly discover a painting which seems to date to the early 16th century and to be the only extant portrait of Leonardo da Vinci, an astonishing find. Additionally, the two unearth a manuscript likely written by Francesco de Melzi—the last known pupil of da Vinci, and the painter of his portrait—that provides extraordinary insights into one of the world’s greatest artists. The memoir also recounts a gruesome murder committed at the famous Aldine Press, just in advance of da Vinci’s plans to have some of his notebooks published there, and da Vinci’s brilliant attempt to solve it. (In this engrossing novel, da Vinci emerges as a “super-sleuth,” among other things, a man blessed with the “skill to untangle the most diabolical of mysteries.”) Artie and Scarlett—these are not their real names—decide that such a rare and precious trove of art history can’t be left in the hands of “just another rich guy with a collection erection” who will almost certainly lock it in some inaccessible dungeon for his private delectation. Artie and Scarlett change their names, don disguises, and contact Peter Chenoweth of Harker Publishing in the hope the book will enter the public domain. However, Mr. Dickson learns of their gambit and threatens Harker with legal action…and he might be capable of much worse.
The research process necessary to compose this marvelously erudite novel must have been daunting—the narrative is as stunningly meticulous as it is expansively wide, and the novel is worth reading just for the scholarship and the gripping depiction of da Vinci. This is much more, though, than an academic exercise in art history. Neumeier has created a genuinely captivating story, a drama that is utterly mesmerizing and thrums with suspense. The characters are vividly realized, brimming with virtues, talents, and flaws—Scarlett has a “a burning desire for justice,” but is also difficult, caustic, and agonizingly arrogant. She can be terribly close-minded and dogmatic, but she is also profoundly sensitive to the clarion call of beauty. “I’m a scientist with a degree in physics and a master’s in biophysics. Suffice it to say, I have zero patience for self-delusion or magical thinking. I don’t believe in all that afterlife stuff. But I do hope, as Leonardo did, that I can weave a cocoon of great beauty and usefulness before disappearing into the infinite sky on painted wings.” It is a testament to the author’s originality that this is a very difficult novel to neatly categorize—it is a murder mystery, a crime drama, a tutorial in art history, and more. Readers with an interest in art, and likely those without but who are open to art’s charms, will find this novel to be delightfully beguiling.
A thoroughly enjoyable blend of history and drama.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 21, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Ruth Ware ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 8, 2025
An enjoyable visit with an old character, but not one of Ware’s strongest.
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New York Times Bestseller
Travel writer Lo Blacklock is back. Ten years after the events of The Woman in Cabin 10 (2016), she's attending the opening of a lavish Swiss hotel when, once again, a mystery intervenes.
A decade after she almost died on a luxury cruise and ended up exposing a murder plot, travel journalist Laura “Lo” Blacklock is trying to get back into the business post-Covid-19 and post–maternity leave. When she's invited to an exclusive hotel launch by the Leidmann Group on the shores of Switzerland’s gorgeous Lake Geneva, her supportive husband, Judah, insists that she should go, and her old boss, Rowan, says that if Lo can score an interview with the reclusive Marcus Leidmann, she’ll publish it in the Financial Times. Leaving Judah and the kids at home in New York, Lo is surprised by a last-minute upgrade to first class, which kicks off her trip in style. The hotel is appropriately awe-inspiring in both scenic location and effortless luxury, and Lo starts to put the memories of last trip’s trauma behind her, thinking that maybe she can just enjoy the experience this time. But then, at dinner, she's surprised to see at least three guests who were also on that original cruise, and when she finds a mysterious note in her room saying "Please come to suite 11 as soon as possible," she gets another shock. To quote William Faulkner, she realizes that “the past is never dead,” and soon Lo is careening across Europe on her way to England, only to find herself embroiled in another murder. The back half of the novel offers her the opportunity to continue her amateur sleuthing, and while she avoids much of the physical danger that plagued her on the cruise a decade ago, she is in very real legal trouble. This is the prolific Ware’s first sequel, and it's fun to spend time with Lo again, as she's both savvy and kindhearted. Unfortunately, the mystery is not as atmospheric and gripping as usual for Ware, though even a lesser Ruth Ware thriller is still worth reading.
An enjoyable visit with an old character, but not one of Ware’s strongest.Pub Date: July 8, 2025
ISBN: 9781668025628
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Scout Press/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2025
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by Stephen King ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 27, 2025
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
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New York Times Bestseller
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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