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Title: The Bernini Bust (Art History Mystery) by Iain Pears ISBN: 0-425-17884-6 Publisher: Prime Crime Pub. Date: 06 March, 2001 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.5 (4 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Enjoyable Reading
Comment: This is another in Mr. Pears' art history series featuring an Italian art police woman and English art historian/dealer. Unlike the prior books, this one takes place in Los Angeles rather than Rome. The change in venue does not detract.
The Bernini Bust is one of the more enjoyable of the series.
Is there a bust or not? Is it a forgery or not? At least the reader is sure there was a murder early on in this thoroughly enjoyable novel.
Mr. Pears' all-to-human heroes go through their usual mistakes and miscues and end up solving the crime. There is also a bit of shaving the ethical edges that always adds an interesting twist or two to these books.
What adds to this series is that Mr. Pears keeps the characters - and their relationship - developing. He also adds humor - one can imagine that when Mr. Pears writes about Argyll and Flavia he does so with a wry grin.
There's no heavy-lifting in these books, but this book, like the others is a great light, quick read.
Rating: 4
Summary: Jonathan and Flavia are fun to follow in US as in Europe
Comment: I'll admit it--I missed the complex and worldly European setting that usually surrounds a Jonathan Argyll/Flavia di Stefano mystery. Transplanting Jonathan to Los Angeles on a business trip was a novel idea for Pears, and it works. Jonathan's being a native Brit wandering forlornly through LA with its lack of public transit and decidedly non-European look and feel adds a breath of fresh air to his well-intentioned bumbling. That bumbling, of course, is the comedy that redeems a topic that could become very dry-art history, wealthy art collectors, and old, aristocratic European families.
I love mystery stories, especially serials, but it is always a fine line an author walks while trying to offer fans what they love-and what they want to see again in three, ten, or twenty books about their favorite hero/ine-without coming off as derivative or lacking imagination.
Everything to love about Jonathan and Flavia remains in The Bernini Bust. Jonathan is kind and tends to get confused. Flavia is quick and sharp and alternately frustrated by and worried for Jonathan. The ever-evolving relationship between the two does do some growing in this installment.
I often guess the ending of mysteries written by favorite authors. I can't be the only one who starts to know how an author's ideas tend to turn out after a time. "The Bernini Bust" actually surprised me at the end, and the hilarious conclusion of the murder investigation in LA soothed my ego for guessing wrong. Aside from the murder, the mystery of the Bernini Bust was another clever puzzle that made this yet another great installment in Iain Pears' mystery series.
Rating: 1
Summary: It's a Bust
Comment: Jonathan is adorably feckless in Europe but annoyingly clueless in California. Pears' books are fun to read but this one barely makes it as beach material. Sorry.
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Title: The Titian Committee by Iain Pears ISBN: 0425168956 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: May, 1999 List Price(USD): $6.50 |
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Title: Giotto's Hand (Art History Mystery) by Iain Pears ISBN: 0425173585 Publisher: Prime Crime Pub. Date: March, 2000 List Price(USD): $6.50 |
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Title: The Last Judgement (Art History Mystery) by Iain Pears ISBN: 0425171485 Publisher: Prime Crime Pub. Date: October, 1999 List Price(USD): $6.50 |
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Title: Death and Restoration (Art History Mystery) by Iain Pears ISBN: 0425177424 Publisher: Prime Crime Pub. Date: 07 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $6.50 |
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Title: The Raphael Affair by Iain Pears ISBN: 0425166139 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: November, 1998 List Price(USD): $6.50 |
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