REVIEWED BY WALTER ALBERT:         


PAUL CHRISTOPHER

PAUL CHRISTOPHER – Rembrandt’s Ghost.

Signet, paperback original, 2007.

   It’s been a while since I’ve read a really good adventure novel, with a search for a fabulous treasure, an island that’s concealed in uncharted seas, and with “ruthless adversaries” pursuing an archaeologist and her newly acquired relative and co-heir to the ends of the earth (i.e., those uncharted waters in the South Pacific).

   I suspect that fans of the TV series Lost might enjoy this book, but so would pixilated armchair adventurers eager to find a legendary island like the one in King Kong, and anyone who finds the novels of James Rollins and Clive Cussler to be guilty pleasures and is longing for something a bit more grounded in believable characters and without the fate of civilization hanging in the balance.

PAUL CHRISTOPHER

   This is number three in a series that began with Michelangelo’s Notebook and The Lucifer Gospel, and is promised to continue in 2008 with The Cortez Mask.

   I’ve since read The Lucifer Gospel (Onyx, 2006), which is perhaps even nuttier, with a lost gospel, fallen angels, and Nazi fanatics (yes, I know that’s a redundant expression), culminating in a grand chase and flight sequence in a cavernous maze in a remote area of Illinois where the last Keeper of the Lucifer Gospel is sequestered with his incalculably precious manuscript.