Book Review - The Black Sun by James Twining
November 16th 2007 07:10
It is a secret that has been hidden for more than a half century. . . . The clues have been scattered across the globe. Now someone has begun to piece them together—and the future of the world depends on his being stopped in time.
In Maryland, a vicious gang breaks into the National Cryptologic Museum and steals a Nazi Enigma machine. In a London hospital, an Auschwitz survivor is murdered in his bed, his killers making off with a macabre trophy—his severed left arm. In Prague, a seemingly worthless painting is stolen from a synagogue. Three cities. Three puzzling thefts. Could there possibly be a connection?
When former art thief Tom Kirk is first asked to investigate, the Prague theft certainly seems unremarkable enough—until the stolen painting turns up alongside the amputated human arm. As Tom digs deeper into the past, both items appear to be elements in an elaborate trail of clues laid down in the dying days of the Third Reich by a secret order of SS knights—clues that stretch from the remote mountains of Idaho to the snowy streets of St. Petersburg and ultimately lead to a fabled treasure lost in the ashes of war.
Spurred on by the sinister light of the Black Sun emblem, ghosts from his past, and the poisonous manipulations of a deadly enemy, Tom finds himself trapped in a situation where the greatest prize of all is life itself—and not just his own. . . .
(net sourced)
I had seen this book a few times sitting on the library shelf or in the book shop but hadn't picked it up until now. At first glance this appeared to be another Da Vinci Code clone, with the usual by the numbers hunt for clues, treasure etc, but as I started reading, I found that the writing style was actually alot better. There are some clever twists and one of the characters I had pin pointed to be the baddie although I won't spoil the surprise by revealing if I was correct or not.
On another note, James has a very good website www.jamestwining.com and there are some great links to places mentioned in the story.
On Jame's site, there is a link to contact him and as I'm always curious about things, I asked what gave him the idea?
To answer your question, there's a section on my website which you should look at: Really Long Link
To quote from there, I got the original idea "Strangely enough in a very vivid dream. I woke up in a cold sweat having dreamt about the gruesome amputation of an old man's left arm which was somehow linked to a hidden Nazi treasure. I rushed to my desk and jotted down what I could remember - that dream now forms the basis of the first chapter of The Black Sun. By then combining this dream with the story of the Hungarian Gold Train and the bizarre and tragic events at Wewelsburg Castle, The Black Sun began to take shape in my mind."
I often suspect that authors post-justify how their ideas came to them, inventing a sense of structure that was never originally there. But in this case, I definitely did have that dream...
Overall not a bad book and a good read with some interesting facts behind the story.
Kiwiauthor rating 7/10
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