Review: The ultimate "antique"
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 23, 2012
While I generally prefer "police" procedurals, where the sides are fairly well delineated, there are exceptions, and this is one of them.  Everyone in this book is a rogue, of one sort or another, except, of course, for the Interpol agent, and he is ...somewhere between good guy and not so good guy.  The action is generational, too, which requires some keeping track of, and the "crime" also spans generations.  Combine all that with a charming ghost, and a very awesome German shepherd ..and you get a rollicking good romp through the Art world, with stops along the way in the world of very high finance, and the Italian Mafia.What made this book so pleasing were the characters.  Some of them were delightful, and despite Picker's forays into fraud (at the very least), and his father's unabashed less than legal activities, both were portrayed as essentially good, honorable men. I found myself very satisfied with the end, and, in its way, justice was indeed done.I liked the writing style too, though I had to keep orienting myself in time.  Part of this, I think, is due to the fact that I use the TTS feature exclusively, and it doesn't pause between chapter headings and the txt of the chapters, so things can get confusing. Still it is in this book's favor that I was able to figure out when I was from context with very little trouble, so I never really got lost.  If you can easily read the chapter headings, I should think there would be no problem.I also very much enjoyed Picker's antiquing antics ...the author made them seem so interesting that he almost convinced me that being a "street" antique dealer might have its charms.  All in all, a very nice read, and, should I happen across another Picker novel, I'll certainly read it, happily.