The Last Mona Lisa by Jonathan SantloferMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a fast-paced book, a thriller really, while also being an historical fiction book about art, one of the most famous paintings, The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. The main character, Luke Perrone is the great-grandson of Vincent Peruggia who stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911. The painting went missing for two years, then the thief was caught trying to sell it and was sent to prison for a short time. While in prison Peruggia wrote a journal explaining how and why he did it. Another mystery suggests that while the painting was missing a copy artist created several versions of the painting that are nearly identical and difficult to determine the real from the fake. There are rumors there is a fake hanging in the museum.
Luke is an artist himself and art history teacher and he finally gets a lead about his great-grandfather that makes him drop everything, putting his teaching job in jeopardy, to fly to Italy. From a source he finds the journal, locked in an archive library where he can only read bits at a time. Meanwhile INTERPOL along with some nefarious individuals are tracking Luke and leaving dead bodies in their wake. There’s also the gorgeous blonde in the library, another American, who becomes a love interest, distracting Luke from his goal to find out about the painting and his great-grandfather.
There are several characters, nearly too many, but somehow it does manage to work together. The writing style is easy to read and makes the reading go quickly. It’s hard to put the book down, wanting to know what happens next. There are some unsavory individuals and we do get their point of view, but happily these are usually very short sections. One of the best aspects of the book is how much is based in fact, what actually happened in the past. There is some who still suggest the famous painting is a forgery.
Thanks to Soucebooks Landmark and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.
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