4 out of 4 stars
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The Jewish FBI Agent by M. A. Ettlinger is a crime thriller. The story starts of in the year 1915 set in Australia. Prospectors looking for precious metals just happen to run across a vein of black opal. For years the area was plundered for opal. One large piece of opal was ground into an oval cabochon. This extremely fine and large gem was called “Hephaestus.” Hephaestus was set into a platinum necklace along with diamonds to become a very expensive piece of jewellery. This piece of jewellery had several owners over the years. In 2012 it was sold in auction to Lapidus, an internet billionaire.
Whilst in New York, Lapidus decides to stay at the Plaza Hotel. He keeps the necklace in the hotel safe when it is not being worn. When trying to retrieve the necklace for an evening’s entertainment, it is discovered that the necklace has been stolen. A few days later a painting by Sisley is stolen from the same safe. As the painting belongs to a British man, the FBI has to be called in. The FBI discovers that the painting is listed as being stolen by the Nazi’s from the Jews during the war.
I really liked the way the author opened the story. Giving a full background to how the piece of jewellery was made, brought the piece to life in my eyes. His attention to detail is amazing. This level of detail continues throughout the whole book. Having no real interests in the Nazis I have no idea how accurate all the authors’ details are. They do feel very authentic and gave real depth to a story which has a fairly simple plot.
One of the detectives has an affinity to Gilbert and Sullivan. This causes him to break out into song every so often. The lyrics are quoted that he sings. When this first happened I was a little confused because I wasn’t expecting it. It didn’t take me long to realise that the treble clef was an indication that the next lines were lyrics. After that I spotted the lyrics coming and wasn’t confused again.
I have two criticisms of the book. The first one is with the level of detail that the author provided. Several times he quoted the same information again, a page or so after he first told it. The first time he did it, I thought I’d imagined it. I reread the previous few pages and realized I hadn’t. After the first time I was ready for it, but it was still annoying. The second criticism is regarding the actions of the characters. There is a collaboration between the FBI and NYPD after the robbery of the painting. When they discuss using illegal methods to recover the painting, nobody objects. I find this to be totally unrealistic. There should have been some dissension and then they could proceed with the plan, after an argument or two.
The book is well formatted, with very few errors and the story flows really well. Due to the criticisms I’ve already mentioned I would give this book 3.5 as a rating. As I enjoyed the book I’m going to round this up to 4 out of 4 stars. I think this book would appeal to anyone with a love of crime stories or a love of history. There is nothing that could really cause offense, except for a few racist comments, so I don’t think that anyone should be advised against reading it.
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The Jewish FBI Agent
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