Books

Attention, readers, especially those of the male persuasion. Need a little intellectual gloss to dress up this summer's beach reading? Lay hands on The Forgery of Venus, the latest by novelist Michael Gruber, a leading light in the "literary thriller" subgenre. You know the drill: Hero visits exotic locales on mysterious quest, beds enchanting seductresses, dodges murderous bad guys.

So far, sounds like standard-issue Spike Lit, but wait: Gruber's Guys usually have college degrees, info-world jobs, bohemian pals and more than a CliffsNotes-familiarity with art and literature. Consider, from Forgery, a typical Gruberian scene that opens in the Prado:

"I never pick up girls in museums, I can't see them when I'm in my art head, but there she was, looking at Velázquez' equestrian Baltasar Carlos, and I couldn't take my eyes off her, that mass of red-gold hair ... "

Hence the Gruber formula: Bullets, Broads, Brains, Booze and Big Ideas.

In last year's The Book of Air and Shadows, the inventive Mr. Gruber cleverly brought together an adulterous New York lawyer, an aspiring screenwriter, Russian gangsters and a contemporary of Shakespeare's whose cryptic letters reveal a hitherto unknown and priceless play by the Bard.

This time around the author weaves an even more complex tale concerning Chaz Wilmot, a troubled but likable New York artist and the son of a Norman Rockwell-like American icon. Chaz's talent for imitating the great masters (as seen on covers for New York magazine, Vanity Fair, etc.) and his desperate need for big bucks – his son has a rare and potentially fatal medical condition – lead him into an international art forgery scheme.

It's dangerous, and the forgery kingpin has family ties to the Nazis, but the loot might save Chaz's son and help him get back with his gorgeous, gallery-owning estranged wife, who wants him to realize his true artistic potential and make a lot of money.

Juicy enough, but if you think that's all there is, you haven't read enough Gruber. Along with some other artsy types, Chaz becomes a guinea pig in a study to determine how a drug called salvinorin affects the creative process. Answer: Hugely. Before long he is not only painting like the 17th-century master Diego Velázquez, but he has gone back in time, or somewhere, and is living the painter's life. Or is Velázquez living his? "Time itself is the real hallucination," Chaz learns. Or has he completely gone mad?

Mr. Gruber fills his fictional canvas with these and other tantalizing possibilities. Caution: Readers who get distracted by swooping seagulls or bikini-clad volleyball players (at the beach, not in the novel) may miss some of the author's more cunning plot twists. Hang in there with him. He's always worth it.

Chris Tucker (ctucker.wordpress.com) is a Dallas-based writer, literary consultant and commentator for KERA-FM.

Michael Gruber

(William Morrow, $24.95)

ARCHIVES: Search for more stories on this and other topics | Search Tips

SUBSCRIBE: Get The Dallas Morning News delivered to your home