About the Author: Paul Christopher has written several books, though I couldn't find much about him. His pen name is a pseudonym for his real name, Christopher Hyde. He has written two series of books, the Templar Series, and the Finn Ryan series.
Entertaining Quotes: "Christ on a Crutch!"
"I deal in hard-line mathematics. That just doesn't compute."
"It sounds like we're moving into Dan Brown territory here: weird cults, Catholic conspiracies, Leonardo Da Vinci painting in code."
Simple Summary of the book (No spoilers): I bought this book at a discount book store, and initially the title intrigued me. Sure, I was skeptical at first and I immediately thought it would be another Da Vinci Code knockoff. I decided to take a chance and read it any way, hoping for a shred of originality. This is the first book in Christopher's Finn Ryan series.
The story begins with a hot redhead, named Fiona "Finn" Ryan, who takes her clothes off for artistic integrity (she poses nude as a model for an art class) and works as an intern at a museum. Finn is the typical hot nerd; no luck with relationships but sharp as a tack when it comes to art history and literature, and don't forget the nice rack.
One night at the museum, Finn discovers what she believes to be a page out of Michelangelo's lost notebook (which has never been found). When she tries to tell her supervisor about her amazing, yet puzzling discovery of the priceless drawing, he gets pissed and fires her. Weird, right?
What follows is a string of murders, a love interest for our heroine, and a mystery about a child that somehow links to Hitler.
My Opinion: I wanted to like this book. Finn Ryan is a smart girl with a lot of confidence and doesn't need a man in her life, which in this literary age is rare. She is definitely someone to look up to and I love that the author has given her such strength and individuality. However, the story loses me about a hundred pages in. I ended up lost in the "mystery" that dragged limply along, instead of thrusting me forward in anticipation. By the end, I didn't really care what was happening or how any of the characters ended up.
Among the literary issues, such as lack of suspense and the writing itself being less than stellar, there were plenty of plot issues as well. One thing that bugged me was Finn running into this old friend of her dad's, Michael Valentine. Not only is he somewhere in his forties while she is at least twenty years his junior, but he's a friend of her dad's and she decides to bang the guy. Honestly, I'm all for twenty-something exploring her sexuality with an experienced man (especially if this man looks like George Clooney, which in my mind he did), but its still a little creepy to think you're getting hot and heavy with a man that was already in grad school when you were barely out of diapers and used to grab a beer with your pops.
If you can get passed the author's personal sexual fantasy about being with a much younger woman, then you are on to Phase II: Utter confusion and disappointment. You think this book is going to be about Michelangelo right? Wrong. The story delves into some corruption with the Catholic Church and some lame connection with stolen artwork and the Nazi's. In short, the story was a bastard hybrid of the Da Vinci Code and Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was an easy read and I've read worse books, but I wouldn't recommend this to anyone unless you are mind-numbingly bored or you have a choice between reading this or Twilight.
If it was made into a movie... Lindsay Lohan attempts to revive her career as this sexy, art student with a pension for bad luck and danger. Graphic nude scene in first five minutes captures the male audience (though its nothing we all haven't seen from Miss Lohan before). The rest of the movie is filled with a cast of unknowns and for some reason Eric Roberts makes an appearance. Sex, intrigue, and bad acting by the bushel! Coming to a theater near you...or maybe just a direct to video.
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