The last Mona Lisa A novel

Luke Perrone is a former New Jersey bad boy, a recovering alcoholic, a painter, and an art history professor. Frustrated with the slow pace of his career, he decides to risk all and fully pursue his obsession with his great-grandfather, Vincent Peruggia, the starving Italian immigrant artist who stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911. That historic theft is the accelerant for Nero Award-winning Santlofer's provocative art thriller featuring murdered booksellers and art historians, forgeries of Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece, and Luke's discovery of Vincent's diary in a Florence library, where he meets lovely and enigmatic Alexandra. Luke senses danger, but he has no idea just how dire his predicament is. Whom should he fear most? A diabolical New York art collector? An American INTERPOL research analyst as aggravated with his stalled career as Luke is with his? Alexandra? As the story switches between Luke's increasingly bloody investigation and Vincent's heart-wrenching story, Santlofer brings unique expertise to this vigorously detailed story: his work as an artist who creates "replications of famous paintings for private collectors." Suspenseful, lush with Florence's glorious art and architecture, sexy, and emotionally complex, Santlofer's multifaceted tale of how a passion for art can turn criminal contrasts the genuine with the fake and asks if beauty and love can truly be transcendent.

The real-life theft of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa from the Louvre on Aug. 21, 1911, by workman Vincenzo Peruggia provides the backdrop for this outstanding caper from Nero Award winner Santlofer (Anatomy of Fear). In 2019, Luke Perrone, a nontenured university professor of art history and Vincenzo's descendant, searches the Laurentian library in Florence, Italy, for his great-grandfather's journal in the hope of determining whether the stolen Mona Lisa was replaced by a forgery before its recovery in 1913, and thus ensuring his academic position. John Washington Smith, an ambitious analyst from Interpol's Art Theft Division, and the mysterious Alexandra Greene join Luke in his effort, and the trio are soon contending with nefarious scholars, forgers, stalkers, a Franciscan monk, and a Russian hit man as the bodies pile up. Details of Florence, Paris, and New York City enhance the twisty plot, as does the insider view of the underground world of art collectors driven by deception, ego, and greed. Santlofer, himself an artist, should win more awards with this one. Agent: Jane von Mehren, Aevitas Creative Management. (Aug.)

What might have happened to the Mona Lisa when it was stolen from the Louvre in 1911 and stayed missing for two years? Art historian Luke Perrone has been obsessed with the history of the Mona Lisa ever since learning that his great-grandfather Vincenzo Peruggia was the man who stole it from the Louvre. When he's contacted by an Italian professor who claims to know the location of Vincenzo's journal, Luke immediately drops everything and flies to Florence. There, he becomes drawn into two mysteries: one from the past (why did Peruggia steal the painting?) and one from the present (why has everyone who's recently encountered the journal died?). As he unravels the story of the first, he becomes more deeply embroiled in the second and begins to fear for his own safety--especially when he finds out he's being watched. With the help of a beautiful American woman; an INTERPOL agent; and a famous art forger he meets in Paris, Luke begins to wonder whether the painting hanging in the Louvre, returned after the theft, is even the true Mona Lisa. Someone clearly cares enough about the answer to keep killing those who know about the journal, so Luke must rush to find the answers before he's next. Through Vincenzo's story as well as occasional chapters that share background on supporting characters, Santlofer crafts a layered and absorbing art mystery, complete with exciting action scenes and beautiful descriptions of the city of Florence and its art as well as Paris and Nice. It's the human story at the heart of it, though, that really elevates the novel. Vincenzo's motives for art theft are both pure and heart-rending, and Luke, flawed and struggling, seems to innately grasp what the person behind the recent violent deaths cannot: A work of art, no matter how precious, cannot be worth more than a human life. A must for fans of Dan Brown and Arturo Perez-Reverte. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.