Customer Reviews

The Final Faberge

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is not a mystery story. It is a thriller. Don't expect to be challenged to figure out who the bad guys are, you are told who they are immediately. Not that this approach is wrong, there are plenty of good stories that don't make you guess.

The main problem with this book is that there is no logic behind the action. The main bad guy has no motive for his actions. Impossible coincidences are routine. Plot points are dropped never to be seen again. (What is the significance of the gems in the egg?) The conclusion makes no sense.

On the other hand, a friend I lent the book to said she liked it. Turn off your mind and you might too.

In 1916 Petrograd, Rasputin picks up the Imperial Easter Egg he commissioned master artisan Peter Carl Faberge to create. Rasputin loves the work and dubs it "The Egg of Eternal Blessing." He places a near perfect sapphire and diamond inside the egg. Rasputin intends to give the Faberge egg as a present to Czarina Alexandra Feodorovna. That very night, friends kill the enigmatic monk. Nikolai Karsalov stealthily steals the egg.

In the 1990's, Mike Carson owns several car dealerships. An old family friend from Russia, Sasha Akimov visits Mike and informs him how his father lost Rasputin,s egg in a rigged poker game around the time of the Kennedy assassination. When someone murders Akimov, NYPD detective Alex Tobias investigates. Meanwhile, New Scotland Yard Inspector Jack Oxby takes a leave of absence to accept a job to find the missing Faberge. Jack and Alex meet and connect murder with the egg.

THE FINAL FABERGE, the third entry in the Oxby art mysteries, is a wonderful tale that takes readers across the globe in a non-stop story line. The intertwining of the two cases strengthens the plot especially when Mr. New York and Mr. London join forces. As with THE DA VINCI DECEPTION and THE CEZANNE CHASE, Thomas Swan instills this tale with warm characters, deadly villains, and a fabulous art mystery that will entertain sub-genre readers.

Harriet Klausner

This book had everything I like going for it: art crime, Russian history, Faberge, and real life characters like Kip Forbes. While it is a very nice read, it fails to deliver on suspense and several plot lines. Thereare many loose ends that are not wound up, and the reader ceases to care about them. Coincidences abound and there is very little that links certain points together other than incredible chance. It is a good, quick read and very entertaining but lacks the power of some of my favorites like The Eight which delivers incredible well. I have not read any of the authors other works and will perhaps seek them out, but I am still in need of a new literary to entice me to read their entire body of work. I am open to suggestions if anyone has them.

No question, The Final Faberge is Thomas Swan's best in his Jack Oxby series. The storyline moves from the dramatic assasination of Rasputin, to today, following the change in ownership of the last Imperial Egg designed and produced by Peter Carl Faberge's workshops. The settings are authentic, particularly the scenes set in St. Petersburg and Uzbekistan.

President of the Unites States was William Jefferson! ...

Who is that? Oh, that must be Mr. Clinton! -- Exactly.

And who is that 'Pavlovich' in the Thomas Swan's book? He turned out to be the Grand Duke Dmitri. A person with that title is a member of the Emperor's family, a brother or a cousin of the Czar. In our case, he is the cousin of Czar Nicolas II. So his last name is Romanov, and his full name is the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich Romanov. Pavlovich is patronymic. To use it as a family name is the same as to use middle name instead of last name.

Unfortunately, Thomas Swan doesn't know that. He calls Dmitry Romanov just 'Pavlovich.' Theoretically, it's nothing wrong to call someone by one's patronymic, but not it a that context.

I understand this has nothing to do with the main subject of his book. But if author doesn't care about such an obvious detail, I can't believe him in the rest.