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Treasure Of Saint-Lazare (2012)

by John Pearce(Favorite Author)

3.45 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0985962615 (ISBN13: 9780985962616)

languge

English

genre

Mystery & Thriller

publisher

Alesia Press LLC

review 1: ***Won in a GoodReads First Reads Giveaway***A lot of thoughts constantly swirled whilst reading this book. I suppose the one word summation may be disappointed. It had good promise and the story itself sounded good, but it seemed to unravel itself as time progressed.A Nazi is holding on to some art and gold when he goes to transport it near the end of the war. It never appears. A group of American soldiers in charge of tracking down stolen art and such learn of this and spend some time looking for it but ultimately never find it. Fast forward to the present and one of the group is falling on hard times and wants to resurrect the search. Sprinkle in some rather confusing connections between a bunch of people and their kids and we have a veritable tangled web of a sto... morery.The main character, Eddie Grant is essentially the guy who lost his father (one of the Army soldiers), his wife and son, and is then somehow brought back into the fold of everything through some of his past relationships and places. The thing is, with all the plot twists and revelations it felt much more like none of the characters were "good guys" and the moral compasses were a bit off. Indeed, the very actions of almost every character seemed a little off, as in not natural: forced, rigid.This fits in nicely with the dialogue which felt too rigid and formal. Much more how one would write and less how one would speak. At times it felt like reading a non fiction article on the Monuments Men, or WWII, or Raphael the painter: it got a little boring.This novel did a great job of detailing Paris, however. Many landmarks and streets were called out...almost too much, but as I have never been there, I just made the map up in my head and no worse the wear. The other main place of focus was Sarasota, FL. Not sure I want to visit there, especially given some of the descriptions of the place.It also seemed like in this novel, the narrator or whomever had a very negative view on the overweight Americans, the major cultural differences in general between the two countries, African Americans and their status both in the Southern USA as well as abroad, and Germans (used a loose term for them all). I did not think this added to the story and was distracting. Other reviewers have pointed some of the above out already.I would like to say that this was not a bad book. The story was decently well thought out, although the ending felt a bit anticlimactic. It was almost good enough to make me forget about all others. After all sometimes a plot driven story is just what the doctor ordered. But like I said, almost. The big reason for this "almost" was that it felt like two books in one. The events that happened in Sarasota, and then the events that happened in Europe. there was even a flashback to 1944 that seemed like a prologue for the second part. Maybe if this background was put at the beginning and a few more POV characters of the bad guys were used, it would have felt more cohesive. Alas, it is what it is. At least all the characters (and there were a few) got endings, more or less fitting to how they behaved in the novel.
review 2: Author John Pearce has crafted a novel, part thriller, part mystery, with a plot that pulled me in and kept me interested in the story all the way to the end. A nice writing style that kept me flipping those pages, figuratively of course as mine was a Kindle. Though it is fiction, it has a basis in truth. The treasure of the title is artwork looted by the Nazis during the work and a lot of it still missing to this day.Eddie Grant, a very distant relative of the Civil War hero and President, lives in Paris and runs a string of English language schools and manages the family stocks. His mother French, a resistance fighter, his father was an American military officer who'd settled in France after the war.Our story begins when an old acquaintance from the States, Jen Caster, delivers a letter for his father, unaware he'd been killed seven years before in an auto accident. Her father had been killed in a hit-and-run and in his safe deposit box was a letter to be hand delivered to Eddie;s father in the event of his death.The two men had been friends going back to the war, Eddie's an officer, Jen's an NCO, who'd worked together during and for a few years after the war tracing stolen artwork and returning it the proper owners.It all starts things up when kidnapping is attempted, demands for the painting, murders, both in Paris and Florida where Jen and her father had lived. Eddie ties his father's death, Jen's father's, and even the murders of Eddie's wife and son to it all.The big prize is the most valuable painting still missing: Raphael's The Portrait of A Young Man, it's value estimated at a hundred million plus. This is all true. Some believe it destroyed, others that it lies in a bank vault waiting for the right person to claim it.Had a fine time with this thriller. If that sort is to your liking, get this one. less

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