Il progetto Atreus

by A.J. Hartley, Roberta Maresca (translator)

Sono le tre del mattino, e tutto sembra tranquillo nel museo di storia naturale di Atlanta. Nessuno potrebbe immaginare che nelle sue sale si è appena consumato un omicidio. E un furto da milioni e milioni di dollari. E Deborah Miller, curatrice del museo, a scoprire il corpo, avvertita da una misteriosa telefonata. Nella stanza segreta dietro la libreria giace, in una pozza di sangue, il cadavere di Richard Dixon, il fondatore del museo. Accanto a lui, una collezione di preziosi reperti archeologici risalenti all'antica Grecia. Ma il più importante di tutti - una maschera funeraria in oro - è stato rubato. Al suo posto un foglio, e una sola parola: Atreus. Dai pochi indizi a sua disposizione, Deborah capisce che la chiave di tutto è in quella maschera: solo ritrovandola potrà scoprire chi ha ucciso Richard, e perché. Presto, tuttavia, si renderà conto di non essere la sola a cercarla: qualcuno è disposto a tutto pur di impossessarsene. Qualcuno che sta tirando le fila di un complotto che ha radici nel passato. Qualcuno che ha già ucciso e che non esiterà a farlo ancora.

Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Fiction, Adventure, Historical Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Crime

377 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 1, 2005

Reviews

[Belinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,25 sterren - Nederlandse hardcover 🌹🌹🌹
De Deborah werkt in een klein museum in Atlanta. Na een fundraising event gaat ze naar huis waar ze een raar telefoontje ontvangt. Geschrokken gaat ze terug naar het museum waar ze in een geheime kamer een kleine Griekse schat vind en het vermoorde lichaam van de eigenaar van het museum. Deborah weet niets van de geheime kamer en zijn inhoud. Maar andere denken dat ze het wel weet en haar leven is in gevaar. In Atlanta, maar naar blijkt ook in Griekenland, waar ze op zoek gaat naar antwoorden op haar eindeloos lange lijst met vragen. Deborah is mij een iets te naïef persoon. Je zou toch denken dat ze uit lijfsbehoud wat voorzichtiger met zichzelf zou zijn. En wat zit er toch achter de moorden? In het verleden en in het heden. Beide verhaallijnen zijn goed met elkaar verweven en de uiteindelijke oplossing wordt mooi ingeweven in het verhaal. 🦋🦋🦋

[Noella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eigenlijk was dit boek best wel ok, maar ik vond dat er zoveel zijsporen waren dat het ongeloofwaardig begon te worden.
Richard Dixon, de directeur van een museum in Atlanta, wordt vermoord teruggevonden in een geheime kamer in het museum. In deze kamer bevindt zich ook een verzameling Myceense oudheden, maar al spoedig blijkt dat er iets ontbreekt, een dodenmasker.
Deborah Miller, zijn medewerkster, is geïntrigeerd door de zaak en gaat naar Griekenland omdat ze denkt dat ze daar misschien antwoorden op haar vragen zal krijgen.
Maar dan blijkt dat iemand (de moordenaar?) het op haar gemunt heeft, en haar zelfs achtervolgde tot in Griekenland.
Na enkele hachelijke ontsnappingen daar, keert Deborah terug naar Atlanta. Ze weet niet meer wie ze kan vertrouwen, en de zaak wordt steeds maar ingewikkelder.
Gaat het hier om een gestolen Myceense schat? Of om kostbaarheden die de Nazi's gestolen hadden? Zijn het eigenlijk wel kostbaarheden, of vervalsingen? En gaat het werkelijk daarom, of is dit enkel een dekmantel om de 'echte schat' te verbergen?
Dus het gaat hier om geheimen binnen geheimen binnen geheimen....ja, het bleef maar komen. En dat vond ik er wat te veel aan.

[Abigail · Rating 1 out of 5]

AH! So much potential--I mean, come on...a murdered museum curator, a previously unknown archaeological treasure, and a missing, and priceless, Mycenean death mask.

The problem--suddenly way too much is going on. There are flashbacks, hate crimes, far too many coincidences that are just hugely unbelievable (and it's a novel, I'm willing to stretch the boundaries of "believability" pretty far). By the end of this book, not only was I disappointed, but I wouldn't have been surprised out that Stefano had returned, and that our heroine had actually been brainwashed into forgetting her long-lost love child, and that she had been a spy for the Greek Government, known only as The Archaeologist. Ugh. Annoying. It had so much potential; unfortunately still a pass.

[Cititoare Calatoare · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Atreus a fost parintele unei case blestemate, responsabil pentru cele mai reprobabile acte de brutalitate impotriva membrilor propriei familii, motiv pentru care descendentii sai au fost blestemati sa poarte razboaie inutile si sa moara violent de mana propriilor familii."
Suna interesant nu? Asa mi s-a parut si mie, insa s-a adeverit a fi o incurcatura dubioasa despre o comoara greceasca antica si nazisti. Se doreste a fi un fel de Indiana Jones si Dan Brown, dar mult mai previzibila si dezamagitoare.
Deborah Miller, asistenta unui muzeu din Atlanta, Georgia, este anuntata intr-o noapte, ca seful ei Richard Dixon a fost gasit mort intr-o camera secreta. Desi afectata de tragedia pierderii lui Richard pe care il considera ca pe un tata, nu poate sta sa isi planga durerea deoarece intra intr-o valtoare de evenimente.
"Colectionarii sunt o specie aparte,... Dorintele lor se invecineaza cu obsesia."
Un thriller cu un potential mare, dar care parca s-a pierdut un pic atunci cand a inceput sa amestece istoria.

[Lisa H. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful, terrible, wretched book. How bad is it? Let me count the ways.

First off, a charming, handsome man shows up saying he is with the law firm for a rich guy who just was murdered, although he had never had the opportunity to meet the deceased himself (very convenient to explain his lack of direct knowledge about the dead guy. Also a handy, if clumsy, way for the author to reveal his bad-guy-ness when he later mentions some supposed personal interaction, which the heroine totally misses. The moron.) So of course the heroine is instantly attracted to him and accepts his story at face value, revealing pretty much all her secret inside information about what might have precipitated the murder, which she keeps hidden even from the police. Even when things start happening to her in places where only he knew she was going, she doesn't seem to question his involvement. Apparently this woman has never seen a thriller movie or read a mystery.

Secondly, a mysterious caller gives her a warning, and when she meets the guy and realizes he is also the person who previously broke into her apartment and lurked around there waiting for her, she goes ahead and makes plans to take a little road trip and investigate a historical site with him. And when someone takes several shots at her, she initially assumes it's coincidental, because no one could possibly be trying to kill her, even though she's already been warned that her life is in danger. The woman is portrayed as MONUMENTALLY dense. No 21st century woman with any sense would get in a car alone with a complete stranger, let alone one who she already knows is shady.

Big surprise, the one person she trusts turns out to be the bad guy, people she distrusts turn out to be her strongest allies. Along the way Mr. Hartley churns out plot complication after plot complication, until I just couldn't wait for it to be all over. I have to confess that at one point I was hoping the main character would get killed off. She was an embarrassment to modern women everywhere.

Oh, and the set-ups were ridiculously telegraphed. "She cleaned up her nails and slipped the file into her back pocket..." so she can fortuitously recall its presence a little while later and use it to escape from the bad guys. Yeah, it was really that transparent. Blergh.

A tiny picky detail - I mean, there are so many BIG reasons to hate this one - Hartley uses a phrase THREE TIMES that instantly told me he was a Brit: "finish up", meaning not "complete" but more like "arrive" -- the phrase an American would use in the same context would be either "end up" or "wind up." No clue why he would put this story in an American setting. Dude, write what you know. Like, not about women, for one thing. I also could really have done without the repeated flogging of the platitude about "handsome men don't go for marginally-attractive women like [Deborah Miller]."

[d · Rating 1 out of 5]

agonizingly terrible. read after visiting Mycenae hoping for a good travel read... actually chucked the book in the hotel garbage.

[Rowan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Murder, mystery, intrigue, ancient and modern history... what more could you ask for in a book? Well, perhaps a main character with more depth and common sense. Therefore 4 out of 5 stars.

[Randal · Rating 1 out of 5]

Worst ... novel ... ever ...
No, seriously, it might just be ... it's recycled bits of Indiana Jones and Dan Brown (and Dan Brown was recycling Holy Blood, Holy Grail and Foucault's Pendulum), with some "Boys from Brazil" thrown in.
There are plot holes and bad timing (hint, you want the long-winded soliliquizing before you get to the big slam-bang finish, otherwise it's nap time in the middle of said finish). At one point, the author refers to the painfully obvious unmasking of the real bad guy as just like in a bad slasher flick. You wait for the "yes, but" moment, but there is no "yes, but" moment. It's just like a bad slasher flick.
It's barely coherent ... the temple of evil was built by the true believers ... but there's only three guys in the cult ... but if the secret were revealed it would lead to the reinstating of National Socialism, only this time in Atlanta, and with a membership of, um, three guys ... the reporter who took the undercover gig as a maid stayed on after the jig was up why? Huh?
Is there really an A.J. Hartley or is that a pseudonym to see if the public will buy computer-generated fiction ... you know, punch a bunch of cliches and a random dialogue generator in one end and out the other end comes books like this one?
And then there's a big, Hollywood ending. Wow. Call me underwhelmed, but I would give this a zero out of five stars only it might look like I forgot to rate it.

[A. L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the attention to the small details adding more life to the story, bringing together both history, fiction, comedy and unexpected twists!😊

[Jason Waltz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining! Actually a rather strong start to a career; I would read another Hartley title. Don't have one on hand, and still have dozens in the TBR stacks, so it won't be soon, but it could happen. Anyway, strong protagonist, I liked the heroine, found her believable, found her anxiety and confusion and fear tangible, followed by her motivation, creativity, and understanding, finally courage. Saw the bad-guy early, though there was some mystery as to how many others there were, so that was clever. Interesting thriller as thrillers go, only knock I can have - and it's slight - is that for all the WWII/Nazi/myth & occult thrillers out there, this one didn't seem to deliver on its potential, after all the work of getting to its point. Not a Ludlum, Lustbader, or MacLean, but definitely a contender.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only knew AJ Hartley from his YA fantasy stuff, so decided to try a few other of his books. This is a mystery/thriller that, unfortunately, is a little dated. There were a number of questions that I kept shouting at the main character to ask, but she never listened to me. Her own damn fault, then, when she got into a mess. Probably good she didn't listen to me. I totally missed the swastika on the cover.

Just recently went to a reading of HArtley's and I asked him about the genre hopping he does in his writing. He said that he likes to read all sorts of things, so why not write all sorts? Luckily, he's good enough that he can do that. Other authors get pigeon-holed into one type of book and have a hard time breaking out and still getting published.

[Kam · Rating 2 out of 5]

The 2 stars rather than 3 is more because this isn't really my kind of book but I needed something to read on the airplane. The writing is competent, the historical & archaeological stuff is interesting, and I liked the strong female main character. The other characters are less well-developed, the story is much more driven by plot (& coincidence). Ultimately it bugged me 'cause I just knew the conclusion would come down to Hitler and Nazi's, it was a bit predictable by the last 1/3rd of the book.

[Vincent Powell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't even bother. It's more predictable than post-Taco Bell bowel movements. The promise of some mix of ancient Greece with Nazi schemes is more of a backdrop than any sort of real part of the book. The heroine is painfully one-dimensional, the villain is obvious from the first several chapters, and the not-actually-a-villian-but-he-seems-like-the-bad-guy is as well. DO NOT READ. NOT WORTH ANY AMOUNT OF TIME/MONEY/MUSCLE ENERGY SPENT TURNING THE SOMEHOW TRIPLE DIGIT PAGE NUMBER THIS HACK MANAGED TO SPEW OUT.

[Noran Miss Pumkin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nazi cult in Georgia tied to a museum theft?! That is not what the book was described when i got it, or i would have not picked it up. Poor plot development. Unbelievable concept, and i just did not like the main character. I like action novels, but just not this one.

[C. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really did not care for this book. The characters were too trite and the plot was weak. Very disappointing historical book with too much coincidence driving the plot forward. It had such promise, too.

[Franco Pitacco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some time ago a reader described a book that keeps you awake until you get to the end with a single word that I cannot remember. I wish I did because this book was just like that. It is 2:45 am now and that tells you all.

[Angela · Rating 1 out of 5]

Although the history/setting of the plot added a bit of flair to this novel, the plot itself seemed too obvious in trying to mislead the reader about the real villain.

[Laura Janeiro · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Mask of Atreus
A. J. Hartley

This novel (2006) is one of the first books written by A. J. Hartley, which are not few. In the style of Da Vinci Code, without its appeal.
Many of the judgments are superficial, if not ridiculous. It doesn't create environments but situations, but even in these, my impression is that of a poorly set of a VERY low budget movie. Everything seems artificial, crude and flat when not absurd, or false. I can't get into the story.
Too many inconsistencies. I chose this.
At one point she is in Acrocorinth, but the scenarios are from the citadel of Mycenae, 20 km away.
The protagonist, director of a museum, knows little or nothing about art.
“In America she was a cultural anthropologist as much as an archaeologist, a scholar of ancient peoples, not their architectural marvels”. (What ??????)

Talking about pottery, she (remember: anthropologist AND archeologist) was ALMOST certain that “nothing from any period in North America's history looked like this” (and then she ask herself: “Ancient Egyptian? Mesopotamian? Assyrian? Greek maybe?” (And I wonder: can a museum director confuse the pottery of North America, Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece?)

It's obvious and it's hackneyed:
“a tea (or whatever you called the result of a tea bag in a cup of tepid water)”
“the stress of the previous few days seemed to descend upon her like the wings of a great, dark bird” (phew!)

Is ludicrous, farcical, like in here:
His knife caught her across the shoulder and the side of her neck. Wincing, she fell back, clutching at the wound, first instinctively, then feeling for spurting. How she knew to do this, she didn't know, but she did it, probing with her fingers, testing for severe arterial damage. There was none that she could feel, and she didn't waste any more time in the examination. (WOOOWWW!!!)

But, my chosen one is ...
Someone is shooting at her and she has been wounded, she is fleeing in the Greek sun, down a rough hill, with little water, with a thigh injury, a blow to the head, a sprained ankle and a sprained wristand ... AND … she takes her time to “slip a stone the size of a cantaloupe into her backpack" in case he (the shooter, who has a rifle) gets close enough to her. (And even so, she manages to escape !!!!)

The book is saved from the garbage can only by a few paragraphs, and a couple of plot twists.
“Archaeology was about discovering a dead past, she had told herself, about learning of those who had gone before, to find out who they were, not to define the present or the future. It had never really occurred to her that this (her career choice) might be some attempt to compensate for her own oddly past-less family. “

It might have been better, she thought, if it really had just been complete and undiluted racism. At least then her rage would be righteous and morally indignant. As it was, it made her father somehow the unwitting victim of some stupid accident. Yes, it was all no more than a bad joke.

The plot twists are the best part, sadly overshadowed by the rest of the book

[Socrate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Andrew Mulligrew îşi puse mai bine căştile pe urechi. Probabil că nu auzise bine. Dat fiind uruitul motorului de tanc Sherman, era şi aşa uimitor că mai putea auzi ceva prin circuitul radio.

— Repetă! ţipă el în microfon.

— Coloană germană îndreptându-se rapid spre sud, chiar în faţă, repetă comandantul. Vehicul blindat în frunte, urmat de ceva mare, fără turelă. Poate un Jagdpanther.

Mulligrew simţi că-i stă inima în loc. Avea impresia că aşa auzise şi prima dată. În ciuda scârţâielilor şi gemetelor scoase de şenilele tancului, putea auzi limpede chiar şi păcăniturile paraziţilor din circuitul radio. Cineva, poate Williams în „Haiducul”, în stânga lui – tot plutonul de blindate avea porecle vopsite pe nasurile turelelor – întrebă ce altceva se mai găsea în convoiul inamic. Omul vorbi cu un ton între resemnare şi groază.

— Vreo două camioane, o semiremorcă, cel puţin alte două tancuri, probabil un Panzer 4 şi un Panther.

Patru tancuri Sherman, îşi zise Mulligrew, unul dintre ele deplasându-se doar cu jumătate din viteza maximă, şi două Stuart M5 înarmate doar cu tunuri de treizeci şi şapte împotriva celor mai bune blindate germane, inclusiv un tanc pe care nu aveau nicio şansă să-l atingă decât din imediata vecinătate. Fiecare dintre tancurile germane poseda tunuri care îi puteau nimici pe toţi de la cinci sute de metri distanţă. Iar Jagdpanther-ul îi putea face bucăţi de la o distanţă de trei ori mai mare.

De ce naiba trimiseseră nemţii un pluton de prim rang ca acesta spre sud, în condiţiile în care îşi foloseau toţi oamenii şi toate maşinile ca să întârzie iureşul aliat din nord? Berlinul stătea să cadă, poate chiar căzuse, dar unei astfel de unităţi de elită i se permisese să se retragă atât de departe spre sud, chiar în calea plutonului – Dumnezeu să-l aibă în pază! – aliat de blindate.

Tancul lui Mulligrew, alături de restul plutonului, se separase de Batalionul 761 de tancuri cu cinci zile înainte, în vreme ce treceau prin Regensburg spre est, ca să înainteze spre Dunăre. Se găseau la circa o sută de kilometri nord-est de Munchen şi la mai puţin de atât de Austria şi de ceea de fusese Cehoslovacia înainte să fie înghiţită de Reich, iar distanţa faţă de frontiera elveţiană nu era cu mult mai mare; era un ţinut spectaculos, plin de munţi împăduriţi cu creste înzăpezite şi castele îndepărtate, romantice, aruncate pe piscuri. Înaintaseră alături de restul armatei de asalt, începând în sfârşit să creadă că târâşul lor de coşmar din Normandia, prin Ardeni, către inima Germaniei, se apropia de un sfârşit victorios – un sfârşit care aproape făcea uitat faptul că îşi pierduseră jumătate din camarazi pe drum – şi se treziseră ţintuiţi pe loc de artileria inamică. Plutonul lui Mulligrew primise ordinul de a anihila liniile de aprovizionare inamice, dar se trezise complet singur două zile mai târziu. Batalionul primise ordinul să înainteze cu viteza maximă alături de restul armatei către Steyr, pe râul Enns, pentru a face joncţiunea – cumva neliniştitoare perspectivă – cu ruşii.

[Courtney Malpass · Rating 1 out of 5]

Initially, I thought the combination of Nazi stolen loot and ancient Greek treasure seemed promising. However, after the first few chapters that proved to be false. Deborah’s character has no depth and is too clueless to believe that she is a museum curator. Everything is always “just out of reach” to the point where it is a plot hindrance rather than a character quirk. Her conversations with other characters only serve to showcase the author’s own racist and sexist ideas/opinions.

The plot was the worst part of the reading experience. It was patchwork at best, twisting and turning with additions that made little to no sense. The weak connection between “the mask of Atreus” and World War II was pathetic and irritating. The author should have chosen one or the other: a hunt for ancient Homeric treasure or a hunt for Nazi treasure. It may not have fixed the problem with the character arcs, but it would have been more logical.

The author uses generalization when delivering historical “facts” in this book and that is such a taboo when writing historical fiction. Generalizations are the enemy of history and its interpretation. It leads to dangerous rhetoric and cancel-culture. But again, the author’s prejudices come across so loud on the page that even narrowing it down and doing proper research still would not have helped this novel. This honestly read as a first draft of a manuscript from a student in a creative writing course who is not seriously interested in learning the craft of storytelling.

That said, I gave this book a 1 star rating. I will not be reading this author again because I found his storytelling disrespectful to history itself and the thriller novel genre and, more importantly, disrespectful to minorities. Hiding behind a Nazi in a fictional story does not make it okay for prejudice to spill onto the page without a clear reason.

[Belinda Vlasbaard · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,25 sterren - Nederlandse hardcover

Robert gebruiker van de huisbibliotheek:

In een klein museum in Atlanta wordt het ontzielde lichaam van de directeur gevonden. Het ligt verborgen in een geheime kamer in het museum, omringd door een adembenemende collectie van Oudgriekse antiquiteiten - een verloren gewaande schat die ooit door de nazi's werd gestolen...

Al snel blijkt dat één voorwerp uit de verzameling is verdwenen: een Myceens dodenmasker van onschatbare waarde.

En naarmate de tijd verstrijkt gaat het er zelfs op lijken dat tegelijk met het masker het gebeente van een legendarische held is gestolen, van wie men tot nu toe aannam dat die alleen in oude mythes bestond.
Door deze diefstal raakt museumcurator Deborah Miller verstrikt in een afschrikwekkend web van moord, mysterie en genadeloze wraakacties van degenen wier oude droom van glorie nog steeds springlevend is.

Verrassend boek in een combinatie van museumoudheden, Griekenland en het Derde Rijk. Leest makkelijk, is steeds verrassend. Wel een wat eenzijdige kijk op het einde, dat bepaald niet het niveau haalt dat bij de rest van het boek hoort. Het aankopen waard.

[James Garman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This delightful little mystery is fast passed and riveting. Deborah Miller, a non-observant Jew, is assistant in a small semi-private museum in Atlanta Ga. Fighting off overly "affectionate" donators is her biggest challenge until one night when her boss and surrogate father (her biological father having died when she was young) is found dead in a secret room in his house adjacent to the museum.

So begins a mystery that including ancient Greece, Nazi Germany and people near and dear to her circuit. Who can she trust. It seems that there are few that are trustworthy but some less so that others. In fact, somebody is trying to kill her and follows her from Atlanta to Greece, back to Atlanta and to Russia.

This is one of those stories that once you start reading it, you just don't want to quiet, which is how I managed to read the entire thing in less than two days. Try it...you will like it, i am almost sure.

[Susana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este libro lo tengo desde hace años en mi estantería, pero nunca veía el momento para empezarlo. Y ete aquí que lo empecé gracias a que mi hija en el instituto están dando en historia la civilización griega y me preguntó por una foto y quien era. Pues era la misma foto que la portada de este libro y cuando la vi dije, ahora es el momento de leer mi libro.
La verdad es que me ha gustado mucho. Había muchísimos capítulos, pero creo que por eso lo he leído con mucha agilidad y facilidad.
La trama me ha encantado, hablando de la antigua Grecia, de los viajes que hace la protagonista que yo había ido con ella a cada uno de ellos. Después casi al final, cambia completamente el rumbo y me ha encantado, no me lo esperaba para nada. Por lo tanto, a mi me ha gustado mucho y lo recomiendo. 15/02/2021

[Qelilah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book didn't get really good until chapter 40.
The beginning is laden with descriptions of flowers, faces, places, etc. As if you didn't know what a particular flower looked like.
I could skip 10 pages and not miss a beat.
After coming to the end, if I had known the author was going to sum up everything, I would have gone to the end.
Great for writers class 101
BUT, I am now interested in who Atreus is. So....

[Gaiainc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall OK. In case you’re wondering Deborah is Tall and she doesn’t do Relationships which is why she sort of falls into one with the guy who is her dead boss’s lawyer (insert eye roll). The plot is decent but seriously Deborah is jetting off to a lot of places kind of randomly. Glad I only paid a dollar for it

[Kali Nelson · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was fine I guess. Felt like a book you pick up at the airport to read while waiting for a flight and never get really invested in.

The idea is interesting to a point but after the third story that miraculously gets resolved mear pages after being introduced I got tired.

It was all just *to convenient* to feel anything but predicable.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read!

[Ana Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

un libro entretenido aunque con algunas lagunas en la linea de relato... si te gustan los museos es un buen referente

[Christi · Rating 3 out of 5]

decent

[Ashley Bianca · Rating 4 out of 5]

easy to read historical fiction murder mystery. Not as good as Steve Berry or Dan Brown but still entertaining.