Book Review - The Black Sun by James Twining
Category Book Reviews
Having read James Twining's Double Eagle when it first came out, I looked forward to his follow-up novel, The Black Sun. While I didn't find it quite as riveting as his first novel, it was still a very good read with plenty of espionage and legends...
Tom Kirk, the former art thief from Double Eagle, is working within the bounds of the law now and minding his own business. He's asked to look into the disappearance of a painting from a synagogue. It's nothing special, but his former partner has pieced that together with a number of other thefts of works by the same artist. Even then, Tom's not overly interested until other crimes start to intersect with the paintings, like severed arms and stolen Enigma machines. These clues lead towards a secret society of German World War 2 leaders symbolized by the Black Sun emblem. This group supposedly hid a train filled with gold in a mountain as the war came to an end, and now an unknown number of groups are racing to find the clues that will point to the exact location of the prize. Tom's expertise in art and other darker skills has him on the leading edge of the hunt, but others are also using him to discover the correct trail. And you can figure that the one who gets there first isn't going to leave many loose ends wandering around...
I found the story rather compelling, as all the historical elements (the Black Sun emblem, the gold train, the Amber Room, etc.) are real and have stories behind them. Weaving this fictional tale into actual events causes it to come to life in a way many novels do not. I don't think I liked the book quite as much as his first, as there was a lot more character development in the first one. You could read these books in either order, but reading Double Eagle first will give you some background that you won't quite figure out here. Even so, I'll be on the early list to read whatever his next novel is...
Having read James Twining's Double Eagle when it first came out, I looked forward to his follow-up novel, The Black Sun. While I didn't find it quite as riveting as his first novel, it was still a very good read with plenty of espionage and legends...
Tom Kirk, the former art thief from Double Eagle, is working within the bounds of the law now and minding his own business. He's asked to look into the disappearance of a painting from a synagogue. It's nothing special, but his former partner has pieced that together with a number of other thefts of works by the same artist. Even then, Tom's not overly interested until other crimes start to intersect with the paintings, like severed arms and stolen Enigma machines. These clues lead towards a secret society of German World War 2 leaders symbolized by the Black Sun emblem. This group supposedly hid a train filled with gold in a mountain as the war came to an end, and now an unknown number of groups are racing to find the clues that will point to the exact location of the prize. Tom's expertise in art and other darker skills has him on the leading edge of the hunt, but others are also using him to discover the correct trail. And you can figure that the one who gets there first isn't going to leave many loose ends wandering around...
I found the story rather compelling, as all the historical elements (the Black Sun emblem, the gold train, the Amber Room, etc.) are real and have stories behind them. Weaving this fictional tale into actual events causes it to come to life in a way many novels do not. I don't think I liked the book quite as much as his first, as there was a lot more character development in the first one. You could read these books in either order, but reading Double Eagle first will give you some background that you won't quite figure out here. Even so, I'll be on the early list to read whatever his next novel is...
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Posted by skip At 18:26:30 On 11/02/2007 | - Website - |