The Girl With the Botticelli Eyes - Hardcover

Lieberman, Herbert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312118155 ISBN 13: 9780312118150

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1996

Synopsis

Mark Manship, Chief Curator of European Art at the Met, faces terrifying encounters while attempting to prepare an exhibition of never-before-seen pieces, discovering that there is a crazed man, Count Borghini, one step ahead of him, vindictively slashing important works before Manship is able to get to them.

About this title

Review:

Suspense expert Lieberman mixes art, madness and murder in this highly imaginative and literate new thriller about a museum curator trying to put together a major exhibit of the 15th Century Italian painter Sando Botticello. Before he's through, Mark Manship of the Met has to deal with a slasher (of people as well as paintings), a fascist lunatic and a beautiful descendant of the painter's mistress and chief model. If you can't get to Venice or Florence in the months ahead, take this richly-detailed and very scary tour instead.

From Kirkus Reviews:

All Mike Manship, a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, wants to do is stage the definitive show of Renaissance painter Botticelli. But in this mordant, grisly thriller, his single-minded pursuit of that idea quickly leads him afoul of a prissy but lethal neo-fascist, an ambitious serial killer, and (almost as dangerous) double-dealing rivals at the Met. Lieberman (Sandman, Sleep, 1993, etc.) shows a pro's pacing here, moving events swiftly along and mixing a series of alarms and escapes with spare but pungent details of the art world. Manship has already managed to borrow most of Botticelli's greatest paintings for the show, and has even been able to buy some less well-known works. But a shadowy fascist organization is threatening retaliation should any of Botticelli's art be allowed to leave the country. (At the same time, it gradually becomes apparent that a serial killer who has claimed several dozen victims in recent years in Rome has taken some kind of perverse interest in the exhibit.) All of this comes to a head when the charming Manship recruits Isobel Cattaneo to attend the opening of the show. That's important because the beautiful, strong-minded Isobel is a direct descendant of Simonetta, the model for Botticelli's most astonishing paintings (The Birth of Venus, Primavera). Isobel quickly becomes an object of interest to the fascists and the serial killer, who has been pursuing a nauseating plan to replicate Botticelli's paintings using the bodies of his victims. There's a believably edgy romance involving Mike and Isobel, and a tense climactic battle between the killer and the lovers in the corridors of the Met on the show's opening night. Lieberman's knowing portrait of the international art world, the tautly paced plot, and his two complex, believable protagonists make this a highly effective work, though some may find the details of the serial killer's labors decidedly unpleasant. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0312118155
• ISBN 13: 9780312118150
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 308