#BookReview The Night Gate by Peter May @Mobius_Books @QuercusBooks #TheNightGate #TheEnzoFiles #PeterMay #MobiusBooksUS Title: The Night Gate

Author: Peter May

Series: The Enzo Files #7

Published by: Mobius on May 31, 2022

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 496

Format: Paperback

Source: Mobius Books US

Book Rating: 8/10

The body of a man shot through the head is disinterred by the roots of a fallen tree.

A famous art critic is viciously murdered in a nearby house.

Both deaths have occurred more than 70 years apart.

Asked by a forensic archaeologist in Paris to take a look at the site of the former, Enzo Macleod quickly finds himself embroiled in the investigation of the latter, and two narratives are set in train – one historical, unfolding against a backdrop of real events in Occupied France in the 1940s; the other contemporary, set in a France going back into Covid lockdown in the autumn of 2020.

At the heart of both is da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

Tasked by de Gaulle to keep the world’s most famous painting out of Nazi hands after the fall of France in 1940, 28-year-old Georgette Pignal finds herself swept along by the tide of history. Following in the wake of the Mona Lisa as it is moved from chateau to chateau by the Louvre, she finds herself both wooed and pursued by two Germans sent to steal it for rival patrons – Hitler and Göring.

What none of them know is that the Louvre has secretly engaged the services of the 20th century’s greatest forger to produce a duplicate of the great lady, one that even those who know her well find hard to tell apart. The discovery of its existence is the thread that links both narratives. And both murders.


Review:

Complex, sophisticated, and intriguing!

In this impressive seventh instalment in The Enzo Files series, The Night Gate, May has written a fast-paced, tortuous mystery that finds forensic expert Enzo Macleod temporarily out of retirement and immersed in two investigations, one involving skeletal remains found entangled in the roots of a tree, and the other concerning a newly deceased middle-aged male found murdered in a home he recently visited to discuss the movement of the Mona Lisa during WWII.

The prose is sharp and tight. The characters are meticulous, intuitive, and intelligent. And the plot, using a back-and-forth style, unravels and intertwines quickly into an ominous tale full of secrets, lies, deception, greed, manipulation, misdirection, mayhem, violence, and murder.

Overall, The Night Gate is another engrossing, pacey, action-packed thriller by May that was an extra special treat allowing us to go back and visit with these characters one last time in a storyline that was not only suspenseful but steeped in fascinating history.

 

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

              

 

 

Thank you to Mobius Books US for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Peter May

Author, screenwriter and creator of television drama. Peter May was born in Glasgow, but now lives in France, where his books have won several awards and he has a large following of fans. He was recently introduced at the Lyon Festival of Crime writing as "The most French of all Scotsmen"; however, after acquiring French nationality in 2016, he became known in the French media as "The most Scottish of all Frenchmen".

Photo by Vincent Loisin.