The Modigliani Scandal by Ken Follett

 

                  I read this in March .  It is the most different novel by Ken Follett and one I knew nothing about previously although it was first published in 1976, this paperback edition was published in 2019 and has an introductory letter by the author.  Usually he writes sagas that span generations and eras, this is a specific time and place and is a great story, intrigue, bordering on mystery about art. 

 If I were to use one word to describe it, Twisty would be as close as I could get.  In only 279 pages Follett tells an amazing fast paced story about a lost or forged art masterpieces and the treachery of the world of collectors of these gems. 

 Set in Europe it begins in Paris innocently enough, where 25 year old Dee Sleigh  a primary character, recent graduate  of art academy and college with a degree  in Art History. is taking the summer off before she decides what to do with her life.  She is in Paris with Mike, her boyfriend through whom she learns about an old man in his 90's who  was  a friend to several old master painters/  artists before WWI. 

 At his  place she sees a sketch, a drawing with the faded signature Modigliani.  Amedeo Clemente Modigliani was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France.   The old man had a massive art collection but no longer.  He tells her about  Modigliani's drug habits and how artwork was lost in a fire.  But he also tells her that  he had given some to someone in Italy.    Long ago.  Mike has flown back to London  to handle business for a couple of days.  Dee is elated and  decides to go to Italy and pursue the artwork.  Without Mike there and no one to tell of her  potential find, she jots a postcard off to her Uncle Charles telling him of what she hopes to discover.    So the chase begins.  It is a tale that will come close to disaster for Dee a couple times.  Tracking the artwork and determining forgeries or not is elusive.  Page 90  compares it "like chasing canned peaches."  Now that is different!  

Fast paced,  I could not put this book down, wondering what next.  I give it 5 *****   I include the Introduction below  written by the author in 1985 and his  letter from 2019  for the updated republication of the novel.  

Intro page 1  

Intro page 2  

In the Introduction, page 1, the author notes that he doesn't "believe everything in life is blind chance.   We do not control our lives..........the truth is complicated.  Mechanisms beyond our control and sometimes beyond our understanding determine a person's fate, yet the choices he makes have consequences."   

End of update 2019

2019 Update    

His update in 2019  "Nostalgia Isn't What it Used to Be"  describes the books "people love and remember for years.....usually good in every way, plot, character, prose, imagery, everything."  That fully describes every Ken Follett book I have read and this one is no exception.  

Back cover  

I stated above another 5 *****

Crowning Design by Leila Meacham

Read this in May, a delightful story with twists by a renowned women's novel writers, Leila Meacham.  Ever since I was introduced to and read her "Roses"  back when every so often I like to read one of her books.  I have gifted her books to many women over the years and all have enjoyed her writing.  This paperback edition, published in 2017, 202 pages  was new to me and did not disappoint for nice reading.  

It opens with a reprint of a letter written in the late 1980's from Leila to her readers, captioned "A Letter to My Friends, Fans, Readers of My Later-In-Life Novels and Newcomers."  She explains that she wanted to tell an interesting story and that she writes about what she does not know and then learns from research.  That has been a successful technique for her, my opinion.  

It is the story of Deborah Standridge a prominent architect in Denver, CO.  Although she was/is a true southern Belle from Georgia she relocated to Denver after her  cum laude college graduation, broke off her engagement and wedding to Roger Lawson a most eligible southern bachelor to the dismay of his mother, her parents and others.  Roger dies in an auto accident and his mother blames Deborah.  She is the only child of elderly parents, Isabelle and Ben who have doted on her and provided her with the best.  The novel opens at the magnificent yet over the top engagement party hosted by Estelle Lawson, Roger's mother. 

Page 1 Crowning Design

Out of sheer curiosity, Deborah accepts an invitation of the Randall Hayden firm to fly to Denver for an interview with his prestigious firm and there decides to break off the engagement and accept the offer to relocate to Denver.  This fully devastates her parents who are in their 70's . Then the tortuous phone call from Estelle that Roger is dead and she will forever blame Deborah.

Dan Parker a prestigious businessman wants Deborah to design the building for his firm to locate to Denver from Phoenix.  And the story takes off.  The founder of the firm, Randall is fond of Deborah and treats her almost like the daughter he never had.  His trusted secretary, Bea has likewise taken to Deborah.  The problem with the building that Dan Parker wants is that two very small businesses, owned by neighborhood friends of Deborah's will be  put out of business, Josie's Bar  and Fred's Paper Shack.  

It sounds easy going until strange things begin to happen and Deborah's home is broken into.  By this time she is  casually dating Dan.  And the story goes on with strange unexpected twists but ends like the fantasy of an adult fairytale.  I  give this 4 **** because it was delightful to read, not very deep, but enjoyable and entertaining and I will gift it along now that I finally posted here.  

Crowning Design   Back Cover

 

Sly Fox by Judge Jeanine Pirro

 

I am so far behind posting here books I have read, a stacxk is waiting to be posted.  Starting with the one I just finished reading,  Sly Fox by Judge Jeanine Pirro.  Published in 2012 but I recently acquired it at a book sale, First Edition too.  I am a fan of Judge Jeanine on Fox so I was intrigued that she had authored a crime novel.  After reading this, I think she should stick to Fox TV shows.  I admire her wit and tenacity on the talk shows so I expected more in a novel.  Perhaps because this is her first I expected too much.

The novel is mediocre reading and was a disappointment to me.  I sighed all through the 288 pages but was determined to  read it through.   The story is OK, with a focus on domestic violence and  schemes and corruption amongst law enforcement agencies especially at the  federal levels.  Not sure how much is auto biographical about Judge herself, including the mother of the main Character, Dani Fox of Lebanese descent. Perhaps that is a tribute to her own mother.   The more  tedious parts were the overly detailed and abundant explanations of the legal system, the professions, attitudes of defense attorneys, the court rooms, trials, and even explanations of the acronyms used for example in the Federal Witness Protection Program. 

However the ending is a clincher and leaves the door open for subsequent novels about Dani Fox.  I do not believe there are any and I will pass if there are. Below are the cover flaps which detail the story.   I only give this 3 *** maybe that is too generous but it was readable. It will be donated back to the  book sale efforts at our local library, first edition regardless.

 

Back cover with photo of the author Judge Jeanine Pirro.

Make Me by Lee Child

 

 Published in 2016, I started to read this on New Years day this year, but just now posting the review., months later,  April 24.    With the amazing success of the new Reacher movies on Amazon Prime I have been kicking myself for not keeping all the other editions which I have read and many of which were first edition hard covers.  So  finally I will keep the few that are remaining.  These books have become impossible to find at book sales locally too.  This was a used  one, paperback, 494 pages, it has been on my self to read for  about a year. On page 1, included below, there is a mention of use of drones.  Since the initial publication, in 2015 hardback, I did not think drones were as familiar back then, but maybe that is just me or not recalling correctly.  

Page 1  

 By page 3 we know it is nearly the end of summer and Reacher has just gotten off a train in front of grain elevators.  He is the only passenger to get off in this agricultural bump in the road, Mother's Rest.  When he saw it on a map he thought the name was interesting for a railroad stop and  wondered what had happened  likely long ago to give it this name.  He is intrigued by a worried woman., Michelle Chang,  a former FBI, now a private investigator looking   for  her missing partner. 

. Reacher has no particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there, and there’s something about Chang . . . so he teams up with her and starts to ask around. He thinks: How bad can this thing be? But before long he’s plunged into a desperate race through LA, Chicago, Phoenix, and San Francisco, and through the hidden parts of the internet, up against thugs and assassins every step of the way—right back to where he started, in Mother’s Rest, where he must confront the worst nightmare he could imagine.    Walking away would have been easier. But as always, Reacher’s rule is: If you want me to stop, you’re going to have to make me. 

Back Cover

    This novel is filled with many Reacherisms, sayings one that I           particularly noticed here repeatedly was "Hope for the best,  plan for the     worst."

  As every other Reacher novel this was a 5 **** read.  At the back of the      novel is a short story featuring Reacher and Neagley, "Small Wars." 

Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris

 "Sold on a Monday was inspired by a photograph in a 1948 newspaper of four children sitting by a sign which read 4 children for sale. "  I read this historical fiction novel in September 2021 but set it aside to post here.  It has been a best seller but I waited to get it at the book sale.    A heart wrenching tale about life back in the Depression era told through  a young rookie reporter Ellis Reed. 

This is from the author's website and succinctly summarizes the story...'The sign is a last resort. It sits on a farmhouse porch in 1931, but could be found anywhere in an era of breadlines, bank runs, and broken dreams. It could have been written by any mother facing impossible choices.  or struggling reporter Ellis Reed, the gut-wrenching scene evokes memories of his family's dark past. He snaps a photograph of the children, not meant for publication. But when it leads to his big break, the consequences are more devastating than he ever imagined.  At the paper, Lillian Palmer is haunted by her role in all that happened. She is far too familiar with the heartbreak of children deemed unwanted. As the bonds of motherhood are tested, she and Ellis must decide how much they are willing to risk to mend a fractured family.   Inspired by an actual newspaper photograph that stunned the nation, Sold on a Monday is a powerful novel of love, redemption, and the unexpected paths that bring us home. "  https://www.kristinamcmorris.com/sold-on-a-monday

 Original photo Chicago newspaper
August 4, 1948

This was a tale we  hear about, the times when people were forced to make awful decisions,  We might wonder how could they, yet hunger and  severe need force the situation.  I gave this book about 4 ****  It was haunting and yet a subject recently appearing in other novels.  I wish my now passed on relatives were around to tell me  similar tales, what they experienced growing up without anything. Rough times what would we  who are so accustomed to prosperity do? 

Here are the first 2 pages of chapter 1  actually pages 5 & 6 . Because of the length of time since I read this I cannot comment  more.

  

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

 I might be one of the last to read Where the Crawdads Sing,     a best seller published in 2018,, 368 pages and then more notes from the author.  I have so many books to read off my shelf from sales that I seldom buy new fiction but this is one I recently purchased. 

 Being a widow alone so much of the time I really related to this story about Kya, a young girl., abandoned who survives all alone in a North Carolina coastal marsh.  In the prologue the author explains that a marsh is not a swamp.  I  appreciated that because I do know the difference but many wouldn't.  After I read about the author's background I understood why she has introduced the story this way. I  copied the prologue first page below. 

in her letter to readers at the end of the book, author, Delia Owens shares "..we may long to be in a group, but we can find  unbelievable strength deep inside to survive, even thrive, when we are alone." While I do not long to be in a group, and find most big groups tedious, I have a group through my church, but I would like to have companionship, a widow's lament.  So I related to Kya although her circumstances as a young girl are very different. 

Reviews and excerpts abound online about this book, so I will not repost those here. 

Back cover

I struggled along keeping interested through the middle of the book, but staying with the tale paid off.  It picks up and the story turns and twists.  It is part mystery, part love story, part nature, human nature, part courtroom drama, and above all affirmation that in spite of all, amidst human indifference and sometimes human cruelty, life goes on.   In the author's conversation with the readers at the end of the book she explains that "isolation affects human behavior."  "Instinctual behaviors born from isolation allow Kya to survive and protect herself.  But more....confidence she gains from self reliance permits her to soar with personal achievements beyond what she could imagine...."  Although fiction, but based on nature, a10 year old abandoned girl survives showing us  "what can we be when we have to be."  

They live in the marsh, poor family, the father is abusive and the mother leaves, abandoning the children, escaping...the siblings leave one by one and this leaves Kya with the father who stays until she is 10 and then leaves as well.  The only ones who truly show her kindness and care are old  Jumpin' and his wife Mabel, who are  blacks that  run an old bait shop and live rough lives as well. Mabel provides clothes for her but Kya determines to

Author

trade them smoked fish.   Tate is a local boy who teaches her to read but he ultimately leaves for college and Kya is alone again.  Ultimately she takes up with Chase Andrews, the young man about town and there the twist begins.  When Chase is found murdered and the sheriff is stumped but determined to find the killer  "the Marsh Girl" becomes the suspect and finally they arrest Kya.  The murder trial is suspenseful.  Meantime one brother, Jodie has returned for periodic visits, he has been in the Army and is now stationed at Ft Benning, GA.  The mystery continues and not to spoil it but Kya triumphs , found not guilty and returns to her marsh.  But this time Tate soon follows, he is a biologist and employed by the University lab.  Kya becomes a published author about the marsh and is able to finally have electricity and running water  and renovate her shack.  She keeps the old woodstove though, just in case Ma returns.  Meantime, Ma, has passed away and Jodie  has  to share that news with her.  Ultimately Tate stays with Kya until the end.  

I give this 4 1/2 stars ****   the half because I did struggle to stay with the story as I mentioned. 

Prologue

  UPDATE JUNE 2025 THE MOVIE IS EXCE;LLENT. Ii WATCHED IT ON NETFLIX.

The Gondola Maker by Laura Morelli

 

A new to me author, recommended by DIL..This one was published in 2014, is a large paperback size,  285 pages.  Laura Morelli is apparently known for the intense research she puts into a subject and that is reflected in this novel and "Dedicated to those whose hearts propel their hands."  is the inscription.,  It begins in Venice in 1581 and as the title reflects about Gondolas.  

The main character is Luca Vianello, son working in his father's shop, an ancestry of gondola making family.  However a tragic accident results in a fire burning down the business and Luca flees fearing the wrath of his father.  The novel follows him as he struggles in a new life finally becoming the gondolier to an artist.  He discovers an old gondola there and asks permission to restore it which he does in his hours while not working.  Meantime in the gallery workshop of the  the artist Trevisan,  he notices a portrait in process by the artist  of a beautiful; young woman and becomes obsessed with her.  He learns she is Signorina Giuliana Zanchi and is smitten but knows she is far above him as a mere gondolier.  Surprisingly she contacts him and asks that he meet her clandestinely.  She asks for his help to take jewelry to a man at a party, she tells him he will know him, recognizable as a Jew immediately.  Luca does this and gives her every cent of the money he gets in return.  So begins the twist. Her family has fallen on hard times since her father's death and her mother will be entering a convent. She will either be married off to someone she does not chose or have to enter the convent herself.   She is trying to sell some of the jewelry secretly to raise money without her mother knowing and gets Luca to take other pieces to pawnbrokers on her behalf which he does willingly.  He dreams of taking her for a ride in the gondola he is restoring.  The tale continues and one day after restoring the old gondola which  was built long before  by his grandfather he meets  with her on the boat.  But someone is watching and reports this to a mean Councillor in the town who had eyes on Giuliana to add to his conquests of maidens, one night stands.  The Councilior has Luca arrested and thrown into prison where he is sure he will perish. He arranges to have the gondola burned. Luca feels he has been betrayed badly by Giuliana and cannot make sense of what happened. But one day he is released to an old friend from his neighborhood, the oar maker, Master Fumgalli is old and failing and had befriended Luca as a boy back home.  Fumgalli wishes him to take over his oar making business.  Luca receives a package from the Artist Tristan with oarlock from of the old  gondola and searches the convent for Giuliiana but learns she is not there.  The novel wraps up with his reuniting with his sister and brother  but not with his father.  As the novel concludes though, his father has cone to him and knocks on the door. The inevitable. 

A moving tale although parts seemed slow to me about the details of gondolas...Nevertheless the book is worth reading.  I give it almost 4 ****

It opens: "I chew on my lip while I wait to see my father's gondola catch fire.  Beneath the boat a pile of firewood is stacked so high that I find myself in the  position of looking up at the underside of its black hull.  A meticulous servant or day laborer has split the logs and arranged them into neat stacks, then pressed dried brush into the spaces between the wood, with intention to start an impressive blaze.  The gondola has been lashed to the largest logs of the pyre, yet it remains skewed at an angle.  From my vantage point I cannot help but admire the craft's flowing lines, its elegant prow reaching to the sky as if to defy this injustice.   My father had nothing to do with the crime committed in this boat of course.  I feel certain that none of the onlookers has any idea that my father, our Republic's most renowned gondola maker and I, a young man barely worthy of note, crafted this gondola with our own hands.  Surely no one has noticed our catanella, the maple leaf emblem we care into the prow of each gondola that emerges from the Vianello workshop."  

Pg 15,  "of course this gondola burning isn't the first public humiliation that I have witnessed on this very spot in my life but I am certain that it will be the most memorable.  "

Pg. 285 conclusion"  My father stands on the other  side of the door now, lifting his right hand.  On either side of this  narrow barrier my father and I stand like reflected images.  Our hands are the same large knuckles, flat, smooth nails, his skin more lined, mine smoother but worn now from labor.  We are separated by the hardness of the oak planks, the hardness of life, the hardness in our hearts.  We are mirror images none the less.     I am so lost in my vision that when the knock comes, I doubt that it is real, but my heart which skips a beat confirms it.  I open my eyes and take a deep breath.  Gently I open the door."