A Long Time Coming
Aaron Elkins
Mystery
Ahh, the classic looted-Nazi-art suspense tale. Aaron Elkins has done this sort of thing before, in the Chris Norgren novels and the standalone thrillers Loot and Turncoat. And you know what? Like the art itself, it never gets old.
A Long Time Coming picks up speed gradually; it's about the middle of the book before the violence begins. I didn't mind. The setup is interesting in its own right, and the story of Solomon Bezzecca--the victim of the looting--is quite powerful. Once the scene shifts to Milan (yes, it's another one of those books that makes you want to travel someplace and eat things) the plot thickens nicely, with several layers of murkily-agenda'd characters to choose among. There's some good art history and some good art technical details and a nice cryptic development or two for the protagonist to puzzle over.
It's not groundbreaking. It's not going to be picked up for a big-budget Hollywood thriller starring Tom Cruise. It is, however, great fun. I'm not generally prone to car metaphors--I'm a train nut--but I can't help thinking of A Long Time Coming as the literary equivalent of a ride in a sports car with a good driver. The gear changes come smoothly, you get just the right amount of excitement, the car handles superbly, and when you get to the end you'd be happy to do it again.
Or, to put it another way: not once did I think "Oh, come on, I could do better than that." If you think that's a low bar, you didn't read this, this, this, this, this, or this. Among others.
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