Narcissus: A Tate Randall Thriller

by G N Sweetland

A Stolen Masterpiece
Mysterious Macabre Murders
And a new nemesis named NARCISSUS

When a stolen Caravaggio painting is rumoured to have resurfaced in London, DCI Tate Randall of the Arts and Antiquities Investigation Department is tasked with locating and recovering the artwork. As a succession of information is uncovered, the ensuing investigation follows an evidential trail through London’s prestigious auction houses and the corrupt backroom dealings of the city’s art galleries. When the first in a number of potential buyers is found murdered and his corpse mysteriously posed, the case takes an unexpected turn and the subsequent murder investigation is assigned to Tate’s girlfriend of years past, DI Harriet Stone. As their separate investigations progress, they are unaware that their cases are about to collide and throw them back together for the first time in many years. As the body count continues to rise, both Tate and Harriet are forced to confront the skeletons of their past as well as recover the stolen artwork before the Narcissus claims another victim.

320 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 14, 2023

Reviews

[Samantha Crowley]

I was given Narcissus to read by a friend who had read the book previously. It is a self-published novel from author G N Sweetland. The story revolves around DCI Tate Randall of the Arts and Antiquities Invesigation Department. As he and his team begin to follow up leads for a stolen masterpiece they begin to realise its links to several murders that are under investigation by DI Harriet Stone. The book also brings in a dual timeline which takes you back to time that the artist who originally creates the masterpiece and the story behind that which I felt was a nice twist on the plot. You find out why Caravaggio paints the “St Mary Magadalane in Ecstasy” and some background history.

The plot of the story is very clever, showing you how the Caravaggio is stolen, the ego of the thief who goes by the name Narcissus and the investigations of the linked crimes by the two investigating departments. The characters are extremely well developed and believable and the story develops at a good pace whereby you neither feel rushed or have chance to get bored. I also liked the QR codes that appear in the book every so often which give you a link to see the real artwork bringing the story to life and allowing you to truly immerse yourself in the art scene. I read this book very quickly as it is an easy read with short chapters and a good pace.

I do have some criticism however, sometimes the amount of unnecessary narrative meant I did scan read whole pages. There can be at times an excess of descriptions, for example; how Tata clicks his pen, or moves in his chair, eats lunch etc. Other times there were whole pages describing something that I felt was not adding to the plot, and some whole conversations were, in my opinion irrelevant and not needed. It did feel like it was almost a quest to try and make up a word count in parts. The ending also seemed to turn into something out of a James Bond Film which felt random and excessive. The very final chapter however did make all that drama worth it, a great ending I have to say!

Overall for the story, clever QR codes, the sheer depth of research this book must have required I do recommend it. This has clearly been a labour of love for the author and I can only applaud his commitment and would like to read any follow ups.

[Fennella Green]

This book is self-published and quite frankly it shows. The plot itself is very good and the book was well paced. However, the dialogue was clunky, the poor grammar was distracting and, thanks to the author torturing the English language in his efforts to not indicate the sex of the villain, I’d guessed who the Narcissus was within the first 40 pages. Not a bad read, but not a good one either. A classic example of why editing is SO important.