Customer Reviews

With a Gem-Like Flame: A Novel of Venice and a Lost Masterpiece

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This is a great read. It is one of the few books that stays with you long after you're finished. This story appealed to me on several levels. It touches on the beauty and mystery of the art and history of the Renaissance as in the current literary genre of "The Da Vinci Code" and "The Rule of Four." There is a beautifully flowing and sensuous vision of the city of Venice throughout. It's a compilation of intriguing and talented rogues and characters dating from the Italy and Germany of WW II to present day Europe. It's a gut-check morality tale of where greed, ego and pride can lead man in his worldly pursuit of the ultimate "prize." And, finally, there is a good old, intense, passionate, physical and intellectual relationship between Jordan and Katie that is warmly reminiscent of Bogie and Bacall. This book has it all. Read it.
William Kelley, Florence, Italy

Set in atmospheric Venice and tracing the intrigues of international art dealers competing for Rafael's lost "Leopardi Madonna," this first novel by David Adams Cleveland caught my attention immediately. And this suspenseful book far exceeded even my high expectations. Cleveland displays a sophisticated knowledge of artwork and powerfully evokes the WWII period during which the masterpiece was confiscated from an Italian Jewish family. His portrait of Venice convincingly evokes the city's contrasts, and the plot twists are truly surprising. This book should appeal to any discerning reader who loves Venice, mysteries or art! I am planning to give several copies as holiday gifts.

Cleveland's first novel is a fast paced chase over the bridges and on the canals of Venice which the author obviously knows well. After a wordy start he soon gains his stride with the tale of sleuth and intrigue among the varied players in the private auction of a missing Raphael madonna masterpiece, or is it a perfect forgery? His characters, vehicles for the plot, are not always fleshed out and the reader doesn't necessarily become attached to them, though his Venetian mentor is a stunning exception. Cleveland soars with visual images:"violin melodies pouring like pink confetti," "an oasis in a watery dessert," and "Raindrops began a soft pecking." His reverence for visual beauty is positively contageous; his action is worthy of an Indiana Jones matinee; and his sophistocated yet comprehendible appreciation of art make this a great summer...hmmm... make that weekend read.

Jordan Brooks, a scholar/art dealer with a checkered past arrives in Venice along with an array of tony international art dealers. The lure - the surfacing of the Leopardi Madonna, a Raphael masterpiece stolen from an Italian Jew by the Nazis and supposedly destroyed during Allied bombing. Is it a fake or the genuine article? Dealers start disappearing and dying. Who will emerge victorious with the prize Leopardi Madonna? Filled with cliches including Jordan's romance with a sexy and smart woman half his age, and a hundred pages too long this is a mildly entertaining novel with a plot that's been done many times before. It's for those who enjoy stories that take place in Venice as the author handles the atmospherics well.

After having this book recommended to me by a friend, I was amazed at the book's artistic sophistication - of course, the art books layering the coffee table at their house and the various art pieces around the house DID lead me to believe he was in fact a conossieur of art. this book is excellent - I would recommend it to ANYONE looking for a good historical art fiction book :)

When I tell you that this book revolves around a long-thought-lost Raphael painting, and one man's attempt to buy it and discover its secrets, not necessarily in that order, you'd be forgiven for thinking that you know what you're in for -- another art-crime detective novel. But you'd be wrong and, like me, pleasantly surprised. For this book stresses the art above the crime, and is far more about the man on its trail, than the twists in the trail. And the lost Raphael Madonna is so lovingly described you know why he becomes obsessed. And there's a fair bit of raunchy sex, too, with a woman he meets and enlists, and you can see why he'd want her as well. Along with the art and the sex there's Venice, oh and they eat ice cream - what more can you ask for? The prose style hits a few purple patches at the start, but soon settles down, with some fine business around our hero's mental state and life view. He's an odd, but believable, cove, who's sensitive to art but a bit of a bastard, and more than somewhat of a cynic. You'll care, I think, and be moved to visit Venice, eat ice cream, and...well, the rest's up to you. Historical note: this novel mentions that the famous and swanky Hotel Bauer Grunwald was the Nazi's hotel of choice during WWII and that the Gestapo used it for torturing. I assume that this is an historical fact, but it's not mentioned on their web-page, funnily enough.

Though this is nominally a mystery novel, it really is a tour de force of erudition, diabolical intrigue, raunchiness and sexiness. One need not be knowledgable about the art world--which this reviewer certainly is not--to be swept up in David Adams Cleveland's tour through the art and architecture of Renaissance Venice and his portrayal of the international cast of eccentrics and evildoers (dating back to Nazi Germany) who would own Venice's treasures. As a writer, Cleveland deploys with equal facility the elevated prose of the art world and the grittier language of the back channels of Venice. It adds up to fast and riveting reading.

great read, lots of good stuff about venice