OCTAVO

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.