OMG. What can I even say about this thing? I think this is the first negative review I've done so far on this blog. I HATE having to trash a book featuring subjects so near and dear to my heart - art, especially Caravaggio, and mystery. BUT.....this thing BLOWS big-time. It was so awful that I almost gave up. This is only the 4th ever book I've ever contemplated not finishing, except I was hoping for a good ending. Nope - the convoluted, Oceans-11-type rip-off ending really took the cake. As it stood, it was a painful, 1.5 week trudge that had me continuously rolling my eyes. (I usually finish books within a couple days.)
The writing was absolutely horrendous. Ugly. Tenses change mid-sentence!!! Awkward. Pretentious. Charney didn't seem to find a metaphor he couldn't resist, which in itself is not a sin, but the results were painful, often ludicrous, ugly and forced. The characters...what characters? Plot? Disjointed. The guy must have had deluded expectations of this being turned into a Da Vinci Code, since it reads more like some ridiculously bad movie script.
Thankfully I've been calmed down by the next book on my list, The Devil in The White City, which I can tell already from the first chapter that it's well-written.
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