The Art Restorer - Julian Sanchez

The story covers a number of places all of differing interests - language and culture so this adds another dimension to an already intriguing story.

Enrique is a very successful writer, living in Manhattan. He travels after a number of years to San Sebastian to attend the opening of a new museum and to meet his ex wife. During his time there he also meets up with Craig and strikes up a brief acquaintance with him.  Craig is there in connection with the restoration of Sert's paintings of world renown. Shortly afterwards Craig meets with an untimely death by drowning. Bety Enrique's ex wife has misgivings about the death. She has got very close to Craig whilst he was working at the Museum. She also knows that he was an excellent swimmer and has even swum for the US in the Olympics. She cannot accept that his death is an accident.

Enrique returns home and starts work on his new novel. Immersed in an emerging story, he looks at his mail only much later and discovers that Craig has posted him a notebook detailing all the intricacies of his restoration work at San Sebastian. Some of his notes are cryptic but it is then that Enrique realizes that there is a story behind Craig's death which has to be unravelled.

Covering several countries and several leading families and going back to the German occupation of France and the final push in Paris we have a story of oppression and the way Nazis in France accumulated wealth and stole art work in a huge way to provide for their futures which were so uncertain in the face of impending defeat.  That story also intertwined with the story of Craig - and his own personal life before coming to San Sebastian are the two strands of the Art Restorer coming together to create the novel that Enrique finally ends up writing.

Keeping one on the edge, this was a page turner. I finished it as soon as I decently could, avoiding all work wherever I could till I completed the book!

I downloaded this book to my Kindle from Netgalley (Open Road Integrated Media).