The Black Sun

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 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 show more 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 ...

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)

Okay, I admit it! I'm a sucker for Hidden Secret Nazi Gold Action Adventure stories! What can I tell ya, man -- I like millions of other Americans can't get enough of them crazy fascist secret-society obsessives, and all their supposed billions of hidden money and art and treasure all over the world at the end of World War II, lots of which is supposedly still hidden and un-recovered. And thus do we get to British author James Twining's latest adventure, The Black Sun, part of the so-called "Tom Kirk" series, concerning a former brilliant art show more thief and his old partner who are both now working on the other side of the law as private investigators.

Like many throwaway genre novels these days, Twining takes on several fascinating real-life stories and legends from the period, to craft a rather silly potboiler in the style of The Da Vinci Code (of freaking course), full of rather on-the-nose clues scattered throughout famous real locations all across Europe, causing a team of good-looking and rich nerds to traipse all across the Continent, one step ahead of the law and while even having supermodel Russian mobsters fall in love with them along the way. Skoal! The Black Sun is a genre novel through and through, enough to make a non-fan of the genre howl with unintentional laughter while skimming it; for fans of the genre, though, it contains enough secret Gestapo cult societies and buried truckloads of Jewish gold to satisfy even the most hardcore Indiana Jones fan. Good for the airport or beach; take caution in other contexts.

Out of 10: 6.8, or 9.0 for fans of Hidden Secret Nazi Gold Action Adventure stories show less

Book #2 featuring Twining's hero, Tom Kirk, a now former professional thief, who along with his pal Archie have gone legit in the antiques business. If you've read the Double Eagle by the same author, this one is much better.

A brief synopsis with no spoilers:

As the book opens, Tom is in Prague talking to a rabbi of a synagogue there about some terrible defacing done to the inside and outside of the building. Everything has been graffiti'd with Nazi markings, and there was something taken -- a painting by an artist named Bellak. This puts Tom and Archie onto a very strange case that dates back to before and during WWII involving stolen art. There's also a good twist toward the end of the story.

I had a lot of trouble putting this one show more down, and did so only grudingly when I had to. It was never dull...something was always going on, and the mysteries continued to deepen as the book went along. Add to this the plot twist at the end, and you've got one fast-paced suspense read that doesn't let up. The characters of Tom and Archie are more real in this one than in the previous book, and Twining has really come along since writing The Double Eagle. The Black Sun is one of the more suspenseful books I've read this year, and I'm looking forward to another Tom Kirk story! show less

a pretty decent yarn. fast paced and a good mystery. i thought there were a few too many characters (the story switches between different character's pov throughout) but mostly a fun book. a good beach read.

Clues on some old paintings by an unknown and mediocre artist from WWII lead former art thief Tom Kirk; his partner, Archie; and friend Dominique on a trip around Europe looking for the legendary Amber Room. They try to stay ahead of Tom's father's former partner, Renwick, who is still part of the art underworld and also trying to track down the Amber Room.
It is a page-turner, and kept me up late for several nights running, as I wanted to see how things turned out! Did the Amber Room get found? If so, was it by Tom and friends, or Renwick and company?

reads like someone is after a movie deal. I won't be rushing out to read more by this author, but it was entertaining enough.