A Novel of Paris (The Eddie Grant Series Book 1) - Treasure of Saint-Lazare

I liked this book, but from the beginning there were issues with who was saying what? There would be a paragraph, for instance, mentioning two different he saids, but which one was he? I loved all the references to Paris and the streets, but there were so many bad guys, I wish that I was not reading it on a kindle. Easier to flip back with a book.

A multiple murder mystery spread over years, with a 70 art theft behind them. This was a really great introduction to a great new detective series. One that is built on knowledge of the locales and of the people who live there. I like Eddie Grant.

a well written and entertaining mystery that moves effortlessly between florida and france, and between the present time and the nazi era in world war II. a wholly believable cast of characters (good guys and bad guys), a story that unfolds with unexpected twists and turns and a good ending. i liked it alot.

The first few chapters piqued my interest. but I soon became sorely disapponted due to the poor writing of the author and the plastic/shallow characters. The author spends a lot of time descibing the wealth, good looks, and superior intellect of the main charaters, spending too much time describing designer dresses and good taste of the rich. The plot drags the reader into the Nazi muck and frankly I discarded the digital book in disgust.

Recommend-gets your interest from the start. Takes place in Sarasota Fl & Paris France. Centers around getting back some very valuable paintings that were stolen during the World war 2 German occupation.

'Treasure of Saint-Lazare' was a masterful first work. I look forward to many more in the coming years. I literally could not put it down. Characters were well developed and so well described that they seemed to be in the room with me. It brought a time and situation that anyone aware of the history could understand and relate to. Thanks John.

Phillip Lisk
Dunedin, Florida

The story pulls you - looking for paintings stolen by the Nazis in WWII. I enjoyed the plot and the characters...the end was kind of a let down. I guess I was expecting a grand finish but it just kind of fizzles. A little too much description of Paris. I'd love to go and see how accurate it is, but wordy scenery descriptions had me skimming over paragraphs to get back into the story.

Looking forward to see where the next book takes us.

The author told a good story and developed the characters to be real people! I am awaiting the sequel to this book promised for early 2013. The mystery is well told and the descriptions of Paris took me there. Packard 38

I enjoy books set in a historical context and this combined with a familiarity with the city of Paris and some of the environs of Florida, this story was very good. Fast paced with some twists to keep up the interest.

I just completed my third read of this new novel, the first was a review copy and the others because I enjoyed the mystery so much. The characters each have an interesting role in the story development and stay around long enough be memorable. It certainly makes me want to enjoy an extended tour of Paris since other reviewers say the author's description of the area is very accurate. I look forward to the sequel.

The author apparently has spent a lot of time either in his/her imagination in Paris as he describes Paris scenes with vivid detail. The author does not do well with conversation, but I believe this will improve with time. The characters are believeable.

Drawn in by the interesting premise and the author's history as a journalist, I expected some sophistication in writing. Instead, he stops the story dead for an extended period to insert the back story, the history of his characters which, at least at this early stage, is not relevant. He should have taken a creative writing course, should have learned that action that moves the story forward is critical, should have learned that history can be included as flashbacks--if relevant. Or one person interviews another person (i.e., Barry Eisler's novels, which deserve the reputation they earned).

This was an indication to me that the author was not trustworthy to provide what I seek in fiction. Too bad I did not read the one-star comments before wasting time on this. Interesting premise quickly turned boring.

Too many details, too many Nazis and too much back story of the main characters lineage and family history - all of which is repeated over and over again every time a new character is introduced to 'bring them up to speed'. It became quite tedious and it took me two weeks to finish this book. I also found the suspicion and derision the main character got every time he mentioned he was from France to be annoying and puzzling. It made me think of the movie Coneheads (i.e., "We come from France.") I guess people in Florida view France as another planet. This book was tiresome and I would not recommend it.

Wanted to start with author's book one in anticipation of later getting them all. Author lost me on page 2 when the protagonist leaves the premises to participate in a Barack Obama fundraiser. This time I would have appreciated a spoiler alert, but can't win them all.

This book was a tremendous disappointment. I love Paris and books set in Paris. The setting did not help. The book begins with the hit and run murder of an elderly man in Sarasota, Florida. He had been a Monuments Man, tracking down gold and art looted by the Nazis. After his death, his daughter finds a letter with directions to hand deliver the letter to his colleague in Paris. That colleague had died several years before, so the daughter delivers the letter through his widow to the son, Eddie. Eddie is a widowed, fabulously wealthy American, living in Paris who is ex-special forces. And so the investigation and chase begin through Paris and Florida with old racists, new racists, terrorists, treachery, and new and old murders. It sounds like it should be exciting and a real page turner. I had to make myself finish it. The writing is less than fluid. It needed significant editing to remove lots of unnecessary junk and to fix the wooden dialogue. The sex scenes are so unsexy that the book would have been much better off without them. There was nothing romantic or erotic about them. There is a lengthy flashback from a third-party point of view that the author uses to explain what happened and it seems like a poor solution to his narrative problem. One measure of the clunky writing is that the book seems long when it is not even 300 pages. I read the book for free as an the store Prime customer. It popped up as a recommendation when I was looking at another book on the store and I suspect that it was an ad and not a recommendation. Boo. If you are looking for a good mystery set in Paris or in France, read Mark Pryor’s Hugo Marston books, Martin Walker’s Bruno Chief of Police series, Peter May’s Enzo Files, Jean-Lu Bannalec’s Brittany Mystery series, Cara Black’s Aimee Leduc Mysteries or Cay Rademacher’s Murderous Mistral: a Provence Mystery. Any of them are much better than this book. The most positive thing that I can say is that our author had a good story to tell and if his writing skills or his editing help improve, so will the series.

I've finally finished this. It only took about 5 hours, but it felt endless. However, it has some level of interest, so I stayed with it.
The idea, mainly, is interesting. The story is structured moderately well though is often confusing. (Transitions would help.) I had a general feeling of the writer sincerely wanting to write a decent book, not just a commercial product.
But, I'm completely mystified with the 4 and 5 star reviews. (I imagine they're friends who don't want to be "meam".) Several other less starstruck reviewers have offered useful critiques. I'll offer a couple observations of my own in case the writer might like input.
As has been mentioned by others, I agree with a need for both developmental and grammatical editors. There's the frequent repetition of information we already know, the uneven pacing, the unnecessary backstory on several characters (one going on for several pages near the end when we should be gearing up for a climax. This one was especially egregious.) The generally 2 dimensional characters and profusion of characters. And there's the flat out cheat of the ending that leaves one hanging and seems an intentional ploy to induce the need to read the next intended volume. (Sorry, not happening.)
One grammatical point I noticed already on the first page was the confusing use of pronouns. I got dragged down throughout as I puzzled over which "he" was being referenced. (In one spot after reading two paragraphs over several times, I simply couldn't decide, concluded that in truth it hardly mattered and from then on my reading speed picked up considerably.)
I think fundamentally the writer needs to pick a single genre and work on that rather than trying to combine so many. He needs focus and lots of wrinkle smoothing. Practice. And "meaner" feedback from his writing group!

This e-book certainly looks interesting. But I haven't gotten around to reading yet. This doesn't have anything to do with the item itself but my personal schedule. Again, I look forward to reading it soon.

I cannot believe I paid for a political commentary aka thriller. The USA just finished a divisive political election. Unfortunately, the author cannot let this nasty year sleeze away quietly. Instead, inserted throughout the French-American protagonist's dialogs are constant revivals of old rhetoric. I finally gave up. Let those who like to live in the past roil around in this thinly disguised political thriller. The author could have had a much better book without that stuff.

Treasure of Saint-Lazare is a novel by John Pearce. It is a novel which needs to be read slowly and thought about carefully as you read. It deals with the treasures the Nazis stole in World War II and the Monuments Men. Although it is John Pearce’s first novel, it is the sequel to his second novel, Last Stop: Paris. However, it can be read and appreciated without reading Last Stop: Paris.
In Sarasota, Roy Castor was killed by a hit and run driver; but what killed him was his head hitting the street. Was it murder or a hit and run? His daughter, Jennifer Wetzmiller, goes through his things and finds a letter for Eddie Grant and takes it to him in Paris. With the help of his mother, they make some headway in the letter. It refers to the time when Roy Castor and Artie Grant, Eddie’s father, were in the Monuments Men and finding stolen paintings and furnishings. Artie was present when they talked to Hans Frank and he admitted paintings were sent to his home but the Raphael, Portrait of a Young Man, which was on the manifest never reached there. Roy and Artie continued to hunt for it after they came home; but it was not found. However, someone thinks it was found and has been looking for it. Was this person the one who killed Roy and tried to kidnap Jennifer in Paris? Eddie returns to Sarasota with Jen and they try to find out what happened to Roy and how it connects to Eddie and Jen. Trouble comes to them in spades.

Review of Treasure of Saint-Lazare
By John Pearce

Reviewed by author Roy Murry

The mystery and history of World War II Paris comes alive in John Pearce’s novel when a concerned visitor from Sarasota, Florida, USA arrives with a letter from the past. This leads into a journey that unravels events which may never be resolved to a conclusion.

As in all wars, the worst comes out in combatants on all sides of the ideological conflict. Everyone is out to secure their positions in the turmoil their involved in. Mr. Pearce’s main characters were vested when they were very young.

Their heirs left them with many interwoven problems crossing borders worldwide. In this case, it’s the crimes commented during and after the war, because of the greed of their ancestors.

Property taken from the rightful owners is normal in any war. Here is the crux of the novel Treasure of Saint-Lazare. Germans pillaged the countries they invaded for the good of The Motherland. Those crimes propelled this intriguing story that leads to murder, arsine, and personal conflicts in present time Paris, German, and USA.

Mr. Peace’s main character Eddie is presented with a letter from a long forgotten lover, which has a common unfortunate situation attached – both their father's (Longtime friends) died recently from unusual circumstances because of their wartime involvement. From there, history is discovered leading to a conclusion that will keep the reader interested to THE END.

John Pearce is a lover of the Parisian living, style, and writing. Having been to France twice, I understand the flowery flow of his words. Other writers would be more curt in the way they presented this thriller.

Not Mr. Pearce, he brings the French draping into play with fascinating characters. His sentences and paragraphs are colorfully written, but are sometimes longer than normally anticipated.

Reading Treasure Saint-Lazare was an entertaining journey into Paris’ past and present.

Even the interesting descriptions of Paris couldn't make up for the endless descriptions of how the characters were united by the past. It just dragged on and on, and I gave up pretty early on in the story.

I finished reading it, but can't recommend it. We're constantly introduced to new characters, and each time Eddie has to repeat information to catch them up. It gets tedious. The first half is murder mystery; the second is treasure hunt. But neither of them are that interesting. It's hard to follow dialogue and lack luster people make it just 'OKAY'.

This is a well-written, well-plotted and suspenseful thriller that weaves the history of Nazi art theft into a present-day journey through the backstreets of Paris and Sarasota. John Pearce has clearly carried out extensive research for this novel, which is built around the true story of Raphael’s missing self-portrait, “Portrait of a Young Man,” which vanished after the Second World War. It also digs into the background to the “Monuments Men”, the group of Allied officers - mainly American, British and French - who during and after the war were tasked with tracing the art and treasures looted by the Nazis, mainly from French Jews. The characters are believable and well thought-out, and Pearce uses his descriptive powers to good effect in evoking the atmosphere of the French capital, a place for which he clearly has a strong affinity. There is also often a touch of humor to balance out the heavyweight background material. Thoroughly recommended. (I bought the book on the the store.co.uk site, where I posted this same review).

The publisher's blurb dangles the lure, but it doesn't take long before the hook is set. This fast-paced suspenseful novel veritably coerces the reader to keep flipping another page. It combines a hunt for a well-hidden treasure, revenge, greed, murder, law enforcement on two continents, old relationships, and lessons from WWII history impacting the characters in the 21st century. Well done!
Ebook provided free for honest review courtesy of BooksGoSocial.

Nothing special here... except to note that the author is obsesses with the weight of various characters that appear here. A rather fizzled ending. In between, interesting moments regard the search for a rare painting seized by Germans during WW II along with quantity of gold bars.. possibly for the resurrection of the Fourth Reich but more likely for the personal advantage of a high ranking Nazi. For those with a special interest in France, much of what happens here is in Sarasota, Florida. Worth a read (barely) at the low Kindle price I paid under $5. Otherwise, pass.

Full disclosure: I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. The following opinions are entirely my own.

"Treasure" is hard to categorize into a specific genre because it works hard to cover so many bases. At it's core, it's a treasure hunt, but it is wrapped in intrigue and action, reaching from the fall of the Third Reich to the present day City of Lights, with enough romance to keep interactions engaging, but not enough to classify it as a "romance" novel - a fact for which I am particularly glad.

The main question, of course, is how effectively it covers those bases. The plot of a mystery must be quick and snappy, and for the most part, "Treasure" delivered. It occasionally sagged in places where author John Pearce engaged in significant meandering in his writing - the side notes on the locales were pleasant enough and created a pretty visual, but the histories of side characters and their families became irrelevant minutiae that slowed things down. It wound up being quite a long read - dangerous, for a mystery, but it was compelling enough to keep me hooked.

The characters were, for the most part, charming and enjoyable. Even the "bad guys" had depth to them, demonstrating how carefully they were written. The cast is expansive, however, and not always easy to keep track of. As for the mystery, it was quite convoluted, but cleared up very nicely in the end, which was a very satisfying one. One of the worst crimes a mystery novel can commit is to set up a brilliant mystery and then resolve it in a trite or unsatisfying manner, a crime of which Mr. Pearce is fortunately innocent.

Editing was clearly thorough and careful, there were precious few errors to my recollection, and none which had any impact on the story or its readability whatsoever. I received the paperback volume, the layout and font of which was very clear and readable, and large for those with poor vision. The binding is of good quality, and I expect it to last through many future perusals. All told, "Treasure" is not without its flaws, but the overall plot is quite worth its duller moments, and I would recommend it to any fans of history, art, Paris, mystery, or adventure.

If any point needs clarification, please feel free to comment below or contact me at SeanOnthe [email protected]

Author John Pearce has crafted a novel, part thriller, part mystery, with a plot that pulled me in and kept me interested in the story all the way to the end. A nice writing style that kept me flipping those pages, figuratively of course as mine was a Kindle. Though it is fiction, it has a basis in truth. The treasure of the title is artwork looted by the Nazis during the work and a lot of it still missing to this day.

Eddie Grant, a very distant relative of the Civil War hero and President, lives in Paris and runs a string of English language schools and manages the family stocks. His mother French, a resistance fighter, his father was an American military officer who'd settled in France after the war.

Our story begins when an old acquaintance from the States, Jen Caster, delivers a letter for his father, unaware he'd been killed seven years before in an auto accident. Her father had been killed in a hit-and-run and in his safe deposit box was a letter to be hand delivered to Eddie;s father in the event of his death.

The two men had been friends going back to the war, Eddie's an officer, Jen's an NCO, who'd worked together during and for a few years after the war tracing stolen artwork and returning it the proper owners.

It all starts things up when kidnapping is attempted, demands for the painting, murders, both in Paris and Florida where Jen and her father had lived. Eddie ties his father's death, Jen's father's, and even the murders of Eddie's wife and son to it all.

The big prize is the most valuable painting still missing: Raphael's The Portrait of A Young Man, it's value estimated at a hundred million plus. This is all true. Some believe it destroyed, others that it lies in a bank vault waiting for the right person to claim it.

Had a fine time with this thriller. If that sort is to your liking, get this one.

I was very impressed with this first time author who writes as if he's been doing this for years. Very well written. I like a good mystery and the TREASURE of SAINT-LAZARE is as good as it gets. It's like a magician watching another magician perform a trick. You know how he does it but you marvel at his technique. This is what I felt as I read this excellent book. This is not an easy genre to write about and I was caught up in the unexpected turns and plot changes in this well thought out story. I expected to encounter a lot of typos but found none and I was pleasantly surprised to find that this book was very well edited. John Pearce has a good character in Eddie whose father was involved in locating Nazi treasure during WW2. We find the hero racing through narrow alleys and crowded streets of Paris trying to lose his pursuers. I've never been to France but after reading Pierces book I feel as though I've been there. I'm curious to see what he does with his next book which I look forward to reading.

This is an entertaining, well written book. I recommend it highly. In fact I can picture Tom Hanks starring in the movie which would rival a Dan Brown mystery.

The Starlight Club (Starlight Club, The) by Joe Corso

A nicely done thriller that combines a well-conceived plot involving the Nazi's stolen artwork and a myriad of characters trying to sort out that mystery while at the same time solve some murders associated with the lost treasure. The Paris setting seems to be getting a lot of attention in various reviews and, indeed, it is obvious the author is very familiar with Paris as well as Sarasota Florida, the other setting of the novel.

I did knock it down one star though for characterization. The author does a fine job in the mechanics of writing: plot, setting, pacing, and so forth but sometimes the novel comes across as "reporting". There are quite a few information dumps as the story does require that we readers understand a lot of historical material. So we have to get that information somehow. And, to his credit, the author does often relay that information pretty well...in dialog for example. But somehow I never felt like I really got to know the main characters as well as I wanted to. This is sort of nit-picky as I certainly did enjoy the overall novel. Some good action sequences balanced nicely with intrigue, romance, and historical flashbacks.

John Pearce kicks off his first book, Treasure of Saint Lazare, on the streets of Sarasota under a blazing sun, and concludes it within the rayless caverns of Paris. The reader is manoeuvred not only between two cities, but two times - the years 2008 and 1944.

The novel's historical setting is WWII, and it is clear the author knows a great deal about the subject, doing a good job of entwining real events with the fictional narrative. Eddie Grant is the book's wary protagonist - a Parisian businessman who finds himself compelled to uncover the unpleasant truth about the death of his father, and his wife and child. Along the way, he reignites relations with two former lovers, and as the story unfolds we begin to understand which of the two is genuine.

An interesting historical novel will more often than not impel me to reach for further reading on the themes - in this case the central subject is a still unrecovered piece of Nazi loot. As soon as I finished Treasure of Saint Lazare I immediately dived into other material about the Monuments Men, the Nazi Hans Frank, the Rape of Europa etc. They are all fascinating components of the WWII story which Pearce uses to drive the modern-day plot forward to its thrilling denouement, below the bustling rues of modern Paris.

Lovers of Paris will recognise its abundant beauty and beaten streets, as the writer's careful descriptions highlight not only its enduring status as one of the world's greatest cities, but its significant place in world history.

A real page-turner!