Would that every first mystery novel were as good as this! T.C. Van Adler has written a quirky, kinky, captivating mystery unlike any I’ve ever encountered. Although not without flaws, reading St. Agatha’s Breast is a joyous romp through the English language, art history, and the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy. The story line is a gleeful jaunt through perverse sado-masochism calling to mind the best erotic efforts of Tom of Finland. It’s surely written as well as his gray scale air brushed images are drawn.
The story initially deals with events around the monastery San Redempto in Rome, a seedy dissipated sort of place, yet wealthy (especially in art works) if sadly elegant…sort of like New Orleans…
The Abbey, possessor of many antique objets d’art, counts among it’s holdings, several works of unclear origin but potentially attributable to Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), a French baroque era painter. (He is considered significant as one of the founders of French classicism.) The St. Agatha’s Breast canvas is one of the primary works in San Redempto.
Part One details the machinations of various nefarious residents of San Redempto none of whom seem to be without avarice, selfishness and/or a need to steal, manipulate or otherwise pillage the monastery’s wealth. Interestingly, Part One, with some small changes, could stand alone as a greed crazed but amusing novella.
A good portion of the residents of the abbey end up dead. The black humor connected with the characters immediately calls to mind the opening scenes from the film Harold and Maude, high praise indeed for a debut mystery novel.
But wait…a whole Part Two follows which describes in convoluted detail the scrambling of the surviving characters from Part One as they attempt to attribute the St. Agatha’s Breast canvas to Poussin (which would clearly establish the professional art historian reputation of some) and fix the value of the canvas at the megabucks level.
The strengths of the work are numerous. The great story line and the delightful juxtaposition of church talk, art history talk and street sex talk kept me involved and usually amused. Van Alder has created a world, especially in Part One, of pansexual images in which no kink is left behind. The book’s division into two parts is measured and well done…plot and controlled use of language allow the author to write consistently short chapters usually two or three pages at most. This strength (it is great for reading in bits and pieces) also proves to be a weakness causing choppy story flow and occasionally jarring changes of point of view.
But the major weakness is in the delineation of several of the main characters whose descriptions never allowed me to visualize. Four of the main characters remained blurred in my mind even toward the end of the story. In fairness, others of the characters were so well defined that they seem to jump off the page.
Initially confusing, St. Agatha’s Breast is a fun read, great for the beach or that long plane ride. For those like me who are pressed for time the short chapters are a real boon.
I liked St. Agatha’s Breast. If you are interested in art, art history and/or the lore of the Roman Catholic Church you’d enjoy this work. Those whose tastes run less to the humanities might find the book a bit daunting…still it has some wickedly good sex scenes (if a little kinky for some tastes).
A final observation: Van Adler has written The Evil That Boys Do which appears to use some of the characters who survived St. Agatha…whether it’s a sequel remains to be seen when I read it…and I certainly will read it!