The Bottom Line: Michelangelo's Notebook by Paul Christopher has nothing to do with Michelangelo, or his notebook. The characters stink, there are holes in the plot, and the writing is bad.
CJsMommy's Full Review: Paul Christopher - Michelangelo's Notebook
Let me just start out by saying I only finished this book (Michelangelo's Notebook by Paul Christopher) in order to write the review. By the end of the book, I really didn't care how it ended, I just wanted it to end. Yes, folks, it's that bad. The cover is quite intriguing, the premise interesting, the story....terrible!
The story starts out with Finn Ryan (a beautiful redhead, imagine that), an intern at one of the local New York art museums, finding a page out of a notebook that she thinks is a part of the mysterious, missing Michaelango's notebook (understand, readers, this is really the only time they talk about Michaelangelo, or the notebook....). This seems to set things in motion as her boss (now her ex-boss) is murdered, as is her boyfriend.
Ryan's mother, an anthropologist out of the country, has given her a secret number to call only in emergencies. She calls that number and meets up with Michael Valentine, an old friend of her fathers. Soon enough, Ryan and Valentine find themselves neck deep in missing art, more murdered bodies, and other miscellaneous mysteries.
Okay, here's the positives of the book: the cover is intriguing and the idea of the story is interesting.
Here's the negatives of the book: Everything else. Unfortunately, I'm absolutely serious. This book has no redeeming qualities to me. To start, Ryan, the heroine, has no appeal for me. I don't feel any sympathy for her. In the beginning of the book, she is about to break up with her boyfriend because this is the night he wants her to sleep with him. She claims she is very particular about who she sleeps with, wanting to make sure the relationship is going somewhere before commiting herself, body and mind. Then, within a day or two of meeting Valentine, she's sleeping with him..... And Christopher has no trouble telling us over and over again how beautiful she is (as well as being a nude model, go figure). There's really nothing in her for me to relate to. At times I find her very childish (she's supposed to be a grad student, presumably in her mid-20's), and other times she seems way to wordly.
The story itself jumps all over the place. Every chapter jumps from one character to another, one moment in time to another. Some of the characters are kept mostly a mystery to us who are major parties to the story. Others, Christopher goes into great detail describing, even though we see them for only one or two chapters. There are also major holes in the plot. The finale (or "climax" if you will) is totally unbelievable and really comes out of nowhere. Even though the book is 350 pages long, Christopher only spends a few sentences on what the whole book was leading up to. An utterly pointless ending to an utterly pointless book.
The writing isn't great either. Christopher throws in random lines that do absolutely nothing for me, or for the plot. For example, when the police were going through the home of one of the murder victims, one officer notices that he doesn't have any Preparation H cream, so must not suffer from any "hemmies." Really? And that's going to help you solve the crime? Did I mention the book was utterly pointless?
The thing that disappointed me the most was the lack of mention of Michelangelo or his notebook. I guess I've read too much Dan Brown, but I really thought we were going to delve into some secret that Michelangelo carried, or something along those lines. Yes, the book dealt with secrets, but not in any great detail. Christopher spends pages and pages detailing a certain point in time during World War II, but very little time on other, I thought important, things. I would say to read the book to find out what I mean, but I really don't want anyone to read the book!
There's really not much more to say other than the book was bad. It was a total disappointment, and I'll be sure to keep Paul Christopher off my list of must-read authors! Please heed my warning, and do not get this book!
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