PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- This latest novel from Green is a change from his hi-octane Tori Swyft series. Here he is writing from the perspective of JJ, a bright young art restorer working at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, who is drawn into a mystery around a long lost Van Gogh painting. JJ is something of an amateur authority on the Dutch master through the obsessive and controlling demands of her father when JJ was a young girl. This fraught relationship with her estranged father is a poignant element to what we learn of JJ.
Running alongside this is a story also involving stolen artworks, on the other side of the world. In Belfast, a truly awful family - the Farrellys - own a multinational shipping business and have their hooks into a Monaco-based legal firm. The poor lawyers under threat of death are forced to conduct illegal activities for the Farrellys' lucrative sideline business of drug importation, people trafficking and other contraband. Stolen artworks are used as collateral in the illegal transactions. Based around a real art heist (unsolved to this day), this is a vibrant story with broad appeal that lures the reader into a world of art appreciation and crime mystery. Craig Kirchner
John M. Green is the author of Double Deal, The Tao Deception, The Trusted, Born to Run and Nowhere Man. He left his day job as a banker two years before the global financial crisis - enough of a lag so no one could accuse him of starting the whole mess! Today, he straddles writing, business and philanthropy. He's a director of several organisations, listed and unlisted, including cyber-security, financial services, engineering, publishing and not-for-profits. He lives in Sydney with his wife, the sculptor Jenny Green.
ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- This latest novel from Green is a change from his hi-octane Tori Swyft series. Here he is writing from the perspective of JJ, a bright young art restorer working at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, who is drawn into a mystery around a long lost Van Gogh painting. JJ is something of an amateur authority on the Dutch master through the obsessive and controlling demands of her father when JJ was a young girl. This fraught relationship with her estranged father is a poignant element to what we learn of JJ.
Running alongside this is a story also involving stolen artworks, on the other side of the world. In Belfast, a truly awful family - the Farrellys - own a multinational shipping business and have their hooks into a Monaco-based legal firm. The poor lawyers under threat of death are forced to conduct illegal activities for the Farrellys' lucrative sideline business of drug importation, people trafficking and other contraband. Stolen artworks are used as collateral in the illegal transactions. Based around a real art heist (unsolved to this day), this is a vibrant story with broad appeal that lures the reader into a world of art appreciation and crime mystery. Craig Kirchner
