James Twining

Nazis. Secrets. Art theft. Hidden Treasures. Thrilling adventure. Does that count as a review? If you haven't read this novel a hundred times, you must not read a lot of thrillers.

The Black Sun is your typical thriller novel, rife with the usual cliches and stereotypes. As Tom Kirk, a former art thief, goes on a little treasure hunt to find buried Nazi treasure, he predictably stumbles on some of the most absurdly obscure clues that always lead him in the right direction. He is accompanied show more by a cast of characters equally stereotypical. Americans are fat. Russians drink and smoke a lot. When women are introduced to the story they are described by what clothes they are wearing. If the characters were any flatter I could use them as a bookmark (which would never find their way into another James Twining thriller.) I think the only cliche not found in The Black Sun is the lack of a character with a missing hand or leg or an eye-patch or something. OH WAIT! There is one of those...well, shoot.

The novel starts off slow (like many thrillers) as the author feebly attempts to introduce his characters and story, but it does pick up about a third of the way through. After the author gets the ball rolling, he does do a great job with his action scenes. There is plenty of heart-pounding moments that can get the blood flowing. As the characters begin stumbling upon there ridiculously unlikely clues I can't deny the author did have me gripping my novel a little tighter, eagerly anticipating what would happen next. In that regard, The Black Sun does it's job well, creating suspense and tension with a story that will have you devouring pages to uncover what kind of crazy treasure the Nazis could have hidden, as the characters dodge bullets and participate in car chases and whatnot. It's prone to cause lots of eye-rolling, but it can suck you in it you don't watch your step!

There is also some historical truth and fascinating information about the Hungarian Gold Train to be found here, so it's not all for naught. This does help the over-the-top story to become a bit more conceivable, but it only helps so much. Plus in order to get to this you have to suffer through 400 pages of Twining bland writing, and I can't really say it's worth it. While the novel wasn't a complete waste of time and I didn't necessarily dislike it, it's not one I would recommend too highly. Unless, of course, you are a huge Dan Brown fan...then maybe you should go out and buy this immediately.

Average, 3 stars. show less

A quick read and an unmemorable thriller - basically a treasure hunt with the usual Nazi and Russian gangster cliches and characterisation by numbers BUT Twining writes crisply and each very short chapter (at least in the first two thirds) ends on a cliff-hanger that demands you read the next one until the creativity is finally overwhelmed by the formula in or around page 366 of 575. But, if you want to be entertained and not think, why not ...

When a coin shows up on the body of a dead priest, the FBI take interest. Why? It's a 1933 Double Eagle - it is worth millions of dollars, there are only a few known to exist, and all of those are accounted for...so where did this one come from? Upon further investigation not all the coins are accounted for, the 5 housed in Fort Knox are missing, and now agent Jennifer Browne is tasked with tracking down whoever managed a heist on one of the most well-protected buildings in the United show more States.

This was a little slow for me at first. I had a hard time getting into it for the first 150 pages or so, but like many thrillers it does pick up once the plot develops. I'm not a huge fan of thrillers, but once things get underway it does what it's meant to do - provide the reader with an addicting story as a series of exciting and over-the-top events unfold.

Ironically, the month this book was published it just so happened in real life 10 more 1933 Double Eagle's were discovered in Philadelphia. It was written a couple years before they were found so that may have pushed the publication, but it's still pretty interesting that the author wrote the story a couple years before such an incredible discovery. show less

A blockbuster-style international thriller, very much in the mode of James Bond films. You know the sort, lots of action in lots of exotic places with people jetting round the world at the drop of a hat, and very often in defiance of the laws of physics. Beautiful women, dastardly villains, solid heroes and lots of luxury item name-dropping. Characterisation always gives way to plot, which isn't to say the characters here are not fully rounded, just that they are stereotypes (as you would show more expect in a Bond or Bourne movie).

Twining delivers on the plot twists and turns and provides some exciting, if by-the-book, action scenes. The after-the-credits finale sets us up for subsequent stories.

I enjoyed it as a piece of fast-paced narrative that kept me entertained on a beach in the sun. And that is good enough for me. show less