The Goring Collection [Paperback]

Tom Barnes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 13, 2007

Jacob Meyers is stunned to see his father’s Pissarro—taken by the Nazis in 1945—among the paintings up for sale at The Old World Auction House in Manhattan. He questions the manager, and while he reads a phony provenance, the Pissarro is withdrawn from sale and mysteriously disappears. Jacob, head of an intelligence group, alerts Interpol and joins their ongoing investigation into the underground world of stolen art.

Two suspect paintings, a Manet and a Cézanne sold by an international cartel in Berlin as copies, are tracked to the Berghoff Gallery in Chicago where they are auctioned off as originals. An accidental shooting at the gallery exposes the cartel’s con game and leads to the blackmail of a Las Vegas odds maker, the murder of a San Francisco politician, and the assassination of a former matinee idol in West Virginia.

With the help the Founders Group Intelligence (FGI), a group of patriotic activists whose primary objective is to preserve the Constitution, protect U.S. Sovereignty, and expose political corruption, Jacob doggedly pursues the trail of clues from an estate in Georgia to a castle in Denmark to recover the priceless pieces before the originals become lost among the forgeries.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Tom Barnes grew up in the South and studied English literature and drama at Middle Georgia College and the Pasadena Playhouse. After a hitch in the U.S. Navy, Barnes spent a season with the Hurricane Hunters and has written documentaries for PBS TV. He lives in Southern California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 326 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse, Inc. (November 13, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595464823
• ISBN-13: 978-0595464821
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,586,966 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Hi my name is Tom Barnes and I'm an actor, writer and hurricane hunter.

I was born in Ft. Myers, Florida, and brought up in central Georgia where I got hooked on Civil War stories. I dutifully wrote those stories into my war journal and got my first taste for writing.
At age 17 I joined the Navy, earned my Aircrew Wings and spent a season with the Hurricane Hunters.
Following my hitch in the Navy I returned to school, studied English literature at Middle Georgia College and drama at the Pasadena Playhouse in California. I did dozens of plays ranging from Our Town and Uncle Vanya to My Three Angels and The Tender Trap.
Then I moved to New York for Off Broadway, summer stock and worked with Bert Lahr in Harvey, Vera Miles in The Country Girl and June Lockhart in Forty Carats.
PBS hired me to do the TV Series, "Georgia's Heritage" - as writer and host, narrator.
During our last segment of Heritage I had my first brush with the legendary Doc Holliday.

Most of my writing has a touch of history, even my blogs where I write stories about everything from the Algonquin Round Table and the characters that gathhered there for lunch during the 1920's, to the growth of the movie industry and horse racing's Triple Crown. Then going back to my season with the Hurricane Hunters I blog about hurricanes and the Bermuda Triangle.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Full of grammatical errors and extraneous details, November 12, 2011

By 

Melissa Luer (New Orleans, LA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Goring Collection (Paperback)

I can't believe this book has such great reviews! I had to give up less than 50 pages in because it was so terribly written.

As someone who has studied art crime for years and works in the field, I was surprised that I hadn't heard of this book until recently. Now I know why. The number of grammatical errors made this impossible to read. A sample sentence: "But as doctor's bills piled up, just to make ends meet; he occasionally sold pot and cocaine on the street to supplement his income." I wish I was making this up! On top of the errors, there are a number of asides concerning the Civil War and character history that are completely unnecessary to the plot line. And the writing feels stilted and boring.

So few novels are written about art crime and I really wanted to like this book. It was simply unreadable. Don't waste your time or money.

4.0 out of 5 stars The Goring Collection, March 15, 2008

By 

Michiko "History Lover" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Goring Collection (Paperback)

The book, "The Goring Collection," by Tom Barnes is well-researched and fast-paced with a series of interesting events, building up to a very exciting climax. It made me, a former graduate student in history, to think about how and why the Nazis established a system of stealing valuable art pieces from innocent Jewish victims, under the pretext of "confiscating the illegal artifacts from the so-called criminals." It kept me reading without stopping.

5.0 out of 5 stars The Goring Collection, February 11, 2008

By 

R. Rains - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Goring Collection (Paperback)

This is a well-researched and crafted mystery which will appeal to any art lover or fan of quality stories. The author goes into great detail to tell the story of how several famous paintings disappeared after World War II. The work of undercover detectives finally solves the mystery, but not without some dramatic twists and turns in the story which will keep the reader trying to guess the outcome.