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Suspense expert Lieberman mixes art, madness and murder in this highly imaginative and literate new thriller about a museum curator trying to put together a major exhibit of the 15th Century Italian painter Sando Botticello. Before he's through, Mark Manship of the Met has to deal with a slasher (of people as well as paintings), a fascist lunatic and a beautiful descendant of the painter's mistress and chief model. If you can't get to Venice or Florence in the months ahead, take this richly-detailed and very scary tour instead.
From Publishers Weekly
After a brief foray into futuristic science fiction (Sandman, Sleep, 1993), Lieberman returns to his forte of mordant, contemporary crime chillers (Shadow Dancers, etc.), this one set in the world of high art. To commemorate the 550th birthday of Botticelli, Mark Manship, curator of Renaissance painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is assembling a major retrospective that could catapult him into the position of museum director. In Europe to track down three drawings for the show, Manship meets the eponymous Isobel Cattaneo, a direct descendant of Botticelli's famed model and mistress, Simonetta. Meanwhile, in a parallel plot line, a neo-fascist Italian count, Ludovico Borghini, determined to preserve his country's heritage, is planning to prevent the transfer of the drawings, which he has stolen, to the States. When Borghini suspects Isobel of interfering with his plans, he kidnaps her, leading to the sort of grim and tense scenario that Lieberman does so well, and to a violent conclusion back in the States. Lieberman writes an elegant sentence, as always, and his art-world detailing, especially of maneuverings and backstabbings, seems splendidly on target. He miscalculates, though, in casting Borghini not just as a rabid patriot but as a serial killer; this count's passion is to create life-size dioramas based on Botticelli paintings, using human victims as models in the tableaus. It's a turn that stretches credibility, although it does lend the narrative Lieberman's characteristic dark hues, which readers will find in abundance in this literate, acidic thriller.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
