Items related to THE DOUBLE EAGLE: A WORLD CLASS THIEF. A PRICELESS...

THE DOUBLE EAGLE: A WORLD CLASS THIEF. A PRICELESS TREASURE. A CHASE THAT SPANS THE CONTINENTS. - Softcover

 
9780007190157: THE DOUBLE EAGLE: A WORLD CLASS THIEF. A PRICELESS TREASURE. A CHASE THAT SPANS THE CONTINENTS.
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 

James Bond meets The Thomas Crown Affair in a spellbinding tale of international intrigue and suspense.

Tom Kirk. The world's greatest art thief.

Jennifer Browne. An FBI agent desperate for a second chance.

Cassius. The criminal mastermind controlling the art underworld.

In Paris a priest is murdered, the killers dumping his mutilated body into the Seine. Only he has taken a secret with him to his death. A secret that reveals itself during his autopsy and reawakens memories of Depression–era politics and a seventy–year–old heist.

Jennifer Browne, a young and ambitious FBI agent is assigned to the case.This is her last chance to kick start a career that has stalled after one fatal error of judgement three years before.

Her investigation uncovers a daring robbery from Fort Knox and Tom Kirk, the world's greatest art thief is the prime suspect.

Tom, caught between his desire to finally get out of the game and his partner's insistence that he complete one last job for the criminal mastermind Cassius, faces a thrilling race against time to clear his name. A race that takes him from London to Paris, Amsterdam to Istanbul in a search for the real thieves and the legendary Double Eagle.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

‘We're into Dan Brown territory...in fact, Twining's writing is considerably more impressive.’ Crime Time

‘A carefully constructed tale straight out of the Dan Brown mould of thriller writing’
Sunday Sun

‘A captivating, engrossing debut,...a fast-paced tale of international crime and skullduggery written with style and panache. Twining is a worthy successor to Forsyth, Follett, and Higgins. Highly recommended.’ Christopher Reich

‘The Double Eagle will leave you breathless, but never dizzy. Solid debut work’
Ladsmag

'This would make the perfect Tom Cruise movie'
The Independent on Sunday

From the Author:
The Thomas Crown Affair, Entrapment, Ocean’s 11 – we all love a good heist movie. I myself can trace my own fascination with art and art theft to a scene in Dr No where Bond stares disbelievingly at a portrait of Wellington by Goya.

The inside joke, as my father explained to me when we first watched it together, was that it had been stolen from the National Gallery only a few weeks before filming had begun in 1962, thereby triggering decades of conspiracy theories about criminal masterminds lining the walls of their lairs with stolen masterpieces.

When I tell people about the basic premise of The Double Eagle – James Bond meets The Thomas Crown Affair is the verbal shorthand that I normally use – their reactions tell me that many of them seem to share my own fascination with art and art crime. But where does this interest come from?

Maybe it is the slightly romanticised view of the art thief, who uses guile and ingenuity rather than force, to ply his trade. Or perhaps the beautiful objects they steal appeals to our aesthetic sensibilities and somehow suggests that an art thief must be cultured and erudite as compared to the thuggish types who steal more mundane objects, such as cars and wallets.

What seems certain is that once stolen or lost, works acquire a special significance and mystique. The very fact of being invisible turns its viewing and appreciation into a matter of imagination, where it never has to submit itself to the cold light of critical scrutiny.

It is not for nothing that the most celebrated works are the ones that don’t exist any more – as in love, we most want what we can’t have. For example, Renaissance artists and critics agreed that the greatest work by Michelangelo was not his David or the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, but his lost picture of The Battle of Cascina, the last traces torn up by artists craving souvenirs. Its loss has elevated it to a plane that its earthly survivors could never hope to inhabit.

In my opinion, however, the real reason for people’s fascination with art theft and the inspiration for The Double Eagle, lies with an inescapable paradox. How is it that works that through their soul-searching inspiration, genius and flawless execution elevate their creators close to the divine, bring out everything that is most base in human nature – envy, theft, murder, betrayal and greed?

In that sense, at least, great art is positioned at the heart of man’s age old struggle between the forces of light and darkness. And you don’t need a painting to tell you that that’s the greatest story of them all!

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherHarperFiction
  • Publication date2005
  • ISBN 10 0007190158
  • ISBN 13 9780007190157
  • BindingPaperback
  • Number of pages558
  • Rating

Shipping: £ 10
From United Kingdom to U.S.A.

Destination, rates & speeds

Add to Basket

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780060762209: The Double Eagle

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780060762209
Publisher: HarperTorch, 2006
Softcover

  • 9780060762094: The Double Eagle: A Novel

    Harper..., 2005
    Hardcover

  • 9780007190140: The Double Eagle

    Harper..., 2005
    Hardcover

  • 9780007766635: The Double Eagle

    Harper..., 2005
    Softcover

  • 9780007197118: The Double Eagle

    Harper..., 2005
    Softcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Stock Image

James Twining
Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd (2005)
ISBN 10: 0007190158 ISBN 13: 9780007190157
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
Revaluation Books
(Exeter, United Kingdom)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 400 pages. 6.89x4.61x1.77 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # zk0007190158

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 23.33
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 10
From United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds