Shadowmaker by Roy Lewis

Synopsis

Asked to advise on the antiques collection of a mysterious widow, Arnold Landon enlists the aid of an old friend, Carmela Cacciatore of the Carabinieri Art Squad. He soon finds himself drawn into the investigation of an antiquities smuggling operation which leads to murder in La Rochelle, the involvement of the CIA and the hunt for an ancient religious manuscript looted from the Baghdad Museum after the fall of Saddam Hussein. And lurking in the background is the threatening figure of an assassin trained by SAVAK, the murderous secret service established by the Shah of Iran, the Peacock Prince. But it is in Northumberland that Arnold finally learns the truth and faces the deadly menace of the Shadowmaker.

Review

I found this book hard to get into, maybe it was the long chapters that gave the impression of a slow pace or maybe it was the fact that the narration quite often entered segments of seemingly irrelevant detail that interrupted the flow of the story.

Don't get me wrong, the plot is good and the characters in the most are believable.

I mainly stayed with this book as it mainly takes place in the stunning country side of the north of England where I spend a lot of my leisure time and the descriptions within this book do the are justice.

The book builds nicely then falls away again before building to a climax that is .... almost good.  I ended up enjoying the book but it will not find a top place on my list

Rating

I give this book 6 out of 10, worthy of a rainy weekend

WW