(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)Okay, I admit it! I'm a sucker for Hidden Secret Nazi Gold Action Adventure stories! What can I tell ya, man -- I like millions of other Americans can't get enough of them crazy fascist secret-society obsessives, and all their supposed billions of hidden money and art and treasure all over the world at the end of World War II, lots of which is supposedly still hidden and un-recovered. And thus do we get to British author James Twining's latest adventure, The Black Sun, part of the so-called "Tom Kirk" series, concerning a former brilliant art thief and his old partner who are both now working on the other side of the law as private investigators.Like many throwaway genre novels these days, Twining takes on several fascinating real-life stories and legends from the period, to craft a rather silly potboiler in the style of The Da Vinci Code (of freaking course), full of rather on-the-nose clues scattered throughout famous real locations all across Europe, causing a team of good-looking and rich nerds to traipse all across the Continent, one step ahead of the law and while even having supermodel Russian mobsters fall in love with them along the way. Skoal! The Black Sun is a genre novel through and through, enough to make a non-fan of the genre howl with unintentional laughter while skimming it; for fans of the genre, though, it contains enough secret Gestapo cult societies and buried truckloads of Jewish gold to satisfy even the most hardcore Indiana Jones fan. Good for the airport or beach; take caution in other contexts.Out of 10: 6.8, or 9.0 for fans of Hidden Secret Nazi Gold Action Adventure stories
Book #2 featuring Twining's hero, Tom Kirk, a now former professional thief, who along with his pal Archie have gone legit in the antiques business. If you've read the Double Eagle by the same author, this one is much better.A brief synopsis with no spoilers:As the book opens, Tom is in Prague talking to a rabbi of a synagogue there about some terrible defacing done to the inside and outside of the building. Everything has been graffiti'd with Nazi markings, and there was something taken -- a painting by an artist named Bellak. This puts Tom and Archie onto a very strange case that dates back to before and during WWII involving stolen art. There's also a good twist toward the end of the story.I had a lot of trouble putting this one down, and did so only grudingly when I had to. It was never dull...something was always going on, and the mysteries continued to deepen as the book went along. Add to this the plot twist at the end, and you've got one fast-paced suspense read that doesn't let up. The characters of Tom and Archie are more real in this one than in the previous book, and Twining has really come along since writing The Double Eagle. The Black Sun is one of the more suspenseful books I've read this year, and I'm looking forward to another Tom Kirk story!
Do You like book The Black Sun (2006)?
This was a slow book at first, but the plot started to move along pretty quickly after everything was in place.The thing that attracted me to read this was the big Iron Cross on the cover. The story is about a former art thief named Tom and it involved the theft of a painting, the death of an armed guard to steal an Enigma machine and the search for something that turned out to be not what we all thought it was throughout the book.This is the second book in a series. I didn't read the first one, so I lost a lot of the history between all the characters. That didn't diminish how much I liked this book.Bonus: Konnigsberg Castle is mentioned a few times. Prussia is not dead. It's only taking a short break in Russia's house.
—aoi aka
This book started out great. Tom gets dragged into a mystery with neo-nazis that leads to a WWII mystery. The history and the chase are amazing. The problem I had was at the end there is a bait and switch which really turns it into a let down. To jump from the hunt for the Amber Room to Nazi nuclear material was anti-climactic for me. I guess I was interested in the art and history more than some U-235 material.
—Stephen
Broke the "suspension of disbelief" in the first chapter. Thugs working for the villain steal an Enigma cipher machine from the National Cryptologic Museum, which is run by the National Security Agency.Problem #1: stealing an Enigma machine from the NSA tends to attract the NSA's hostile intention. Dumb. That jarred me out of the book.Problem #2: Purpose for theft: it turns out that the Russian Mafia kingpin villain wants use the machine for his secret communications. Dumber than dumb for follow
—Ken Prescott
