readers advisory for all discussion

I loved Iain Pears art history mysetery series. They were fun, witty (british), with a little mysetery, a little suspense, and art. Anyone know of any other books like these?

side note: I just want some simple subway reads.

Jonathan Santlofer

he writes art mysteries, but they seem a little more graphic, violence-wise, and less literary than pears.

josephine tey also has one which i liked The Daughter of Time but it uses art as a starting point rather than it being strictly an art mystery. she is also pretty literary - slow paced deliberative writing rather than page-turning thriller.


you want a faster pace, yeah??

haven't tried either of those authors! I was just reading a review about The Daughter of Time.

something faster pace is nice for the subway rides, something I don't have to concentrate too hard on (with all the distractions and interruptions on the subway).

dude, have you heard of The Da Vinci Code?? that's totally about art....


i keed!! but i will think of more for you!

You might like Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon. Gabriel is, at last, an art restorer who is constantly being pulled out of retirement by Ari Shamron, former chief of Israeli intelligence and Uzi Navot, chief of Israeli Special Ops for various acts of espionage. Not so much mysteries as thrillers but there's always a bit of art history to be enjoyed.

A simpler subway read might be Hailey Lind's Annie Kincaid, an ex art forger trying to go straight in San Francisco. The series is a bit too filled with hijinks and silly complications, but OTOH, it's set in the City and I met one half of the authors. (The series is written by sisters and one of them has an art gallery in Berkeley).

read the DaVinci Code.

I might enjoy Daniel Silva though, thank you!

For all you mystery series lovers, check out Stop, You're Killing Me! http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/

The site lists series by authors and main character by location and jobs, as well as, genre, historical index, diversity index and awards! I love this site. Here's the link to all the series feature art and artists:

http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/Job...

deb

that's a great link - i just wish they had annotated it. that's what i am hoping this group can do - make long lists like that, but give enough details about the book so that the list is actually useful, and the potential reader doesn't have to go to lots of different sites just to find out what the titles are like.glancing over their list, i see a range of titles, none of which have anything in common except they are about "art." let me roll my sleeves up and see if i can save megan some time.

okay so i have found two additional titles of which i have read neither, but they both seem like they would suit you.

Loot

this one seems to be fast-paced without being completely mindless. it is historical, like the pears, and the reviews seem to be very positive in terms of how he incorporates the historical elements into the murrrrderrrs. (and dana - it is also a WWII book)i don't think there is going to be much in the way of humor, but it sounds like the mystery part is engrossing and you might learn a little about history to boot! the action takes place in a number of european cities, which leads me to believe this will be pretty fast-paced, as the mystery unfolds.

there is this negative review, but i think you personally would find their gripe a positive aspect of a book:

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

also, there is The Flanders Panel which is a novel about an art restorer who finds a message about a murrrderrr in a painting and follows a series of clues to try to solve a mystery hundreds of years old. by his reputation, i expect there will be a density to his prose that will make it more of a literary thriller than a mystery. which i think is the same with the pears. it will probably be one you have to pay a little more attention to, but not so much that you will miss your stop.

but our own bill thompson and jessica treat have given it five stars, so maybe they would do a better job telling you about the book...

karen your awesome! Thanks!

Theft: A Love Story might be one possibility. The author is Peter Carey. It's contemporary, and much of it takes place in Australia.

Then there's Michael Frayn's Headlong, which seems to match your criteria exactly. I remember thinking it could have been 50 pages shorter, though.

These two books are shorter, and reasonably amusing:

St. Agatha's Breast by T. C. Van Adler

The Music Lesson by Katharine Weber

Martha Cooley's novel The Archivist: A Novel comes to mind as inhabiting some of the same territory. It didn't quite work for me, for reasons which I explain in my review. (Maybe it's really more "Possession" territory, when I think about it)

I think it's fair to rule out The Recognitions as subway reading. I have a fine copy, of which I've read the first 15 pages maybe six or seven times.

OK, I need to stop doing this, though I find the fun of suggesting stuff for other people to read dangerously addictive.

if you are still looking for suggestions, here are a couple that look like they might be matches for you:

The Inheritance

The Other Rembrandt

oh, and that guy has another book before this one!

The Rembrandt Secret

Thanks Karen, can always use more books to add to my list of "to read"!

did any of these end up working out?