By: VictoriaD,
on 6/24/2015
After illegal drugs, illicit arms and human trafficking, art theft is one of the largest criminal enterprises in the world. According to the FBI Art Crime Team (ACT), stolen art is a lucrative billion dollar industry. The team has already made 11,800 recoveries totaling $160 million in losses.
The post The criminal enterprise of stealing history appeared first on OUPblog.
By: Jen Robinson,
on 4/21/2014
Book: Eddie Red Undercover: Mystery on Museum Mile
Author: Marcia Wells
Illustrator: Marcos Calo
Pages: 256
Age Range: 9-12 (lightly illustrated middle grade)
So, ok, there are a couple of points here requiring suspension of disbelief. The NYPD hiring an 11-year-old? Said 11-year-old's parents going along with it? The photographic memory AND drawing skill? But personally, I found it well worth letting those points go and enjoying the ride.
Edmund (or Eddie Red, as you may prefer to think of him) is a solid character. Smart, sure, but realistically insecure about it. Loyal to his best friend, who has pretty serious OCD. Eddie breaks the rules in order to learn more about the case, but he's nervous about that. He's not your young James Bond, able to do everything. He's more your regular kid who has one particular skill. He desperately wants to solve the case so that he can make enough money to remain in his private school.
Eddie is also pretty matter-of-fact about being a young African-American male in the city. The color of his skin isn't a big deal, but it's not glossed over, either. It's an integral part of who he is, and who his parents are. This, together with his white friend Jonah's quirks, makes this a mystery that should feel relevant to a wider range of kids than many. Eddie does have a very mild love interest, which didn't really feel necessary to me, but there's not enough to it to be off-putting for younger kids.
The mystery involves following clues, putting things together, and applying a bit of geometry (Jonah is helpful here). A fair number of scenes take place in Jonah and Eddie's school for gifted kids, which I found interesting.
Here are a few snippets, to give you a feel for Wells' writing:
"People always ask how to spell my name. It's European and looks pretty unusual, but it's easy to pronounce: Lawn-rot. Some family down south owned my ancestors back in the slave days, and the name stuck." (Page 16)
"I try to follow. Sadie, our cat-who-may-be-an-evil-overlord-in-disguise, heads me off. Leaping in front of the kitchen door, she arches her back in a ripple of fur and hisses." (Page 39)
"He remains standing, staring out the window. He has quite a pasta/beer belly packed onto his tall body. This man is what my mother would call a touch cookie. Only he's more like a tough loaf of old and angry Italian break, with too much garlic mixed in." (Page 53)
There are also occasional full-page illustrations, representing Eddie's drawings of important characters in the story. Calo's pencil (charcoal?) sketches are a bit professional to actually be created by a sixth grader, but they are a nice addition to book, fleshing out Eddie's talent and giving readers a glimpse of the characters.
All in all, Eddie Red Undercover: Mystery on Museum Mile is a nice addition to the ranks of middle grade mysteries. I look forward to Eddie's further adventures. Recommended!
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers (@HMHBooks)
Publication Date: April 1, 2014
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher
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© 2014 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook.
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By: gaby317,
on 1/15/2010
The blurb:
Inspired by the true story of the biggest art theft in the twentieth century, bestselling author David Hosp returns with his latest blockbuster thriller featuring attorney Scott Finn.
In the early morning hours of March 18, 1990 two men dressed as police officers entered Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, tied up the guards, and escaped with 500 million dollars' worth of paintings. The heist provoked a massive search for both the thieves and the lost masterpieces. But the paintings never resurfaced and the mystery remained unsolved. Now, almost twenty years later, the case threatens to break wide open.
When attorney Scott Finn agrees to help an old friend from Southie, Devon Malley, he has no idea of the trouble he is bringing upon himself. Members of Boston's criminal underworld start turning up dead, and the M.O. of the attacks suggests the involvement of someone trained by the IRA. But when Finn learns of Malley's role in the heist, he's quickly drawn into the crossfire, and into the renewed hunt for the missing artwork. . . A hunt that may cost Finn and his colleagues their lives.
Review:
I've been fascinated with the theft at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, so I was intrigued by the storyline of David Hosp's latest novel. Fortunately, Among Thieves did not disappoint!
Location is as much a character in the novel as the people; David Hosp captures the atmosphere of Boston well from Gardner Museum in the Fenway area to South Boston and the streets of Boston.
While attorney Scott Finn is a convincing and likable lead character, I was drawn in by Finn's colleagues Lissa Krantz and former detective Kozlowski. Lissa Krantz is a strong independent attorney from a privileged background who cares fiercely about her small circle. Tough and burly, Kozlowski ("Koz") built a reputation for integrity and competence in the Boston Police Department but hadn't gotten along with his superiors; after retiring from the police, Koz built a niche as the investigator of their group. When Finn, Koz, and Lissa take on Malley's case in the course of their practice, they approach his case with professional distance. But the three grow increasingly invested and Malley becomes more than a client as the story evolves.
Among Thieves is a satisfying and compelling escape - an art theft mystery and a legal thriller to enjoy.
ISBN-10: 0446580155; $24.99 - hardcover
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (January 11, 2010), 384 pages.
Review copy provided by the publisher.
About the Author, courtesy of Amazon:
In addition to being a novelist, David Hosp is a lawyer and a partner in the Trial Department at Goodwin Procter LLP, one of Boston's oldest and largest law firms. He was born in New York and grew up primarily in Manhattan and Rye, New York. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and of The George Washington University Law School. During college, he also studied at the London School of Economics.
After graduating from Law School, Mr. Hosp returned to New York, where he practiced law at a large Wall Street law firm before moving to Boston and beginning his practice with Goodwin Procter. He spends a significant portion of his legal career working pro bono with organizations like The Boston Public Library and The New England Innocence Project. His third book, Innocence, was inspired by his representation of a man wrongly convicted of the attempted murder of a Boston police officer in 1997, who
This one sounds interesting; it's going on my reading list. Thanks for the review.