The Icon

The Holy Mother of Katarini icon, believed to harbor supernatural healing powers and whose theft from a Greek village in 1944 resulted in mass executions and the burning of that village, is up for sale in contemporary New York City from the holdings of Herr Kessler, a shadowy collector recently deceased. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Greek Orthodox Church, a Greek hoodlum, and numerous nefarious characters vie for the icon. Though the narration spans continents and decades, Lewis Grenville remains sure-footed, guiding the listener slowly along a complex path of double and triple-crosses. He relies on subtle pacing, rather than unique voices, as the characters move through a maze of deceit. K.A.T. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine

March 21, 2005
Literary agent Olson (of the Donadio & Olson Literary Agency) moves to the other side of the desk with this gripping, intelligent first novel of art thievery, treachery and revenge. It's 1944, and a group of Greek partisans are hiding from the Germans near the village of Katarini. Their leader has put into play a scheme involving a German officer who wants to trade a cache of weapons that will be used to fight the Communists after the war for a painted icon known as the Holy Mother of Katarini. The plan goes awry, and the ancient Byzantine icon disappears, only to resurface 56 years later on the wall of a private chapel in the New York City home of a Swiss banker named Kessler. After Kessler dies, various parties—the Greek Orthodox Church, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, an elderly Greek gangster and other mysterious characters—vie to acquire the icon, which is said to posses paranormal powers. Kessler's granddaughter Ana and young Matthew Spear, an assistant curator at the Met, are swept up in the tangled plots to buy or steal the icon. The story twists back and forth between wartime Greece and the present day as the history of the icon and the men who lust for it is gradually revealed. Only the violent and inevitable end brings understanding and a measure of peace to those under the icon's spell. Agent, Sloan Harris.