The Dresden Text

Tim Lacy Artworld Mysteries #2

by Derek Wilson

The Dresden Text

Genres: Mystery

346 pages, Paperback

First published August 11, 1994

About the author

Derek Wilson has been a writer of historical fiction and non-fiction for 50 years. His much acclaimed prize-winning works have largely centred on 16th and 17th century Europe. He has used various pen names for his fiction, his current Thomas Treviot Tudor crime series being written under the name D.K. Wilson. The first 2 books in this series - The First Horseman and The Traitor's Mark are based on real unsolved Tudor mysteries and have received enthusiastic plaudits. Readers have favourably compared this innovative series with the books of C.J. Sansom and S.J. Parris.
Recent non-fiction triumphs include The Plantagenets, Holbein: Portrait of an Unknown Man, and Charlemagne: a Biography.
Derek Wilson graduated from Cambridge and spent several years travelling and teaching in Africa before becoming a full-time writer and broadcaster in 1971. He has frequently written and appeared on radio and television and is popular as a public speaker having appeared at several literary festivals,British Museum, Hampton Court Palace, The British Library and other prestigious venues.

Reviews

[Susy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main character is a British ex-soldier who operates a security firm giving technological support to very highbrow clients. He goes to New York for the opening of a new gallery the security of which is his responsibility, where a treasured fragment of a medieval illuminated manuscript is stolen. As a friend of his is killed during the break in he feels forced to investigate. Though the killer is caught, there are many loose ends and he sets out to decipher the why and the who of the robbery. The investigation takes him to Bonn, Berlin, Vienna, Geneva, each time discovering something new but feeling that he’s being manipulated. More a thriller than a mystery, I felt that the solution was somewhat simplistic, or maybe a speedy way to disentangle the plot from a profusion of red herrings.

[Dawn (& Ron) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating clarification 3-1/2

Second book in the Tim Lacy, Artworld mystery series. Offering a dual storyline of present day Lacy trying to locate the artifact, while dealing with those who prefer he doesn't find it. It is the historical story of the medieval manuscript that is again the strong point. I appreciate the amount of information he gives the reader about how the manuscript is made and its purpose, along with the world of collecting and maintaining these precious manuscripts today. It is how Wilson blends both time periods, building up the pace and making discoveries in both time periods and making them relevant for both timelines, that keeps the modern portions from dragging down the read.