Ангели в полунощ

by Lorenzo Carcaterra, Лоренцо Каркатера, Весела Ангелова (Translator)

Преди четиристотин години Медичите скриват скулптурната група „Ангели в полунощ“, изваяна от неповторимия Микеланджело. Оттогава трите ангела са изгубени за света, макар че според непотвърдени слухове те съществуват.

В тайните проходи на един от най-красивите и величествени градове в света – Флоренция – Кейт Уесткот с помощта на приятеля си Марко се натъква на зашеметяващо откритие: зад стената в затворен коридор има ниша, приютила трите ангела. Тя ще рискува всичко, за да попречи отдавна изчезналите скулптури да попаднат в ръцете на Безсмъртните – престъпници, които не се интересуват от произведенията на изкуството, а само от печалбата при продажбата им на черния пазар. Начело на Безсмъртните е зловещият Гарван, наричан така заради пръстена си с печат, изобразяващ черна птица. Гарвана е готов да мине през трупове, за да се добере до безценната творба. Алчността и жаждата за власт са най-големият му стимул. Преследването започва, но дали ще е с фатален край за Кейт и за Марко?

Изкуството и престъплението си дават среща сред сенките на миналото в този трилър на Лоренцо Каркатера, автор на „Вълка“, „Апачи“, „Гангстер“, „Гангстерски рай“.

Махна черната си кожена ръкавица и с тънките си пръсти стисна шията на жената; големият му пръстен с печат с главата на черна птица улови отблясъка от далечна светлина. Погледна раната от куршума, от която на пода се беше образувала локва от кръв, видя страха в очите на Андрея и се усмихна. Вдигна дясната си ръка, с която държеше дълъг нож, и го заби дълбоко в корема й. Задържа я и изчака, докато животът напусна тялото й и от устните є се стече кървава вадичка.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Art, Italy, Thriller, Art History, Suspense

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Number-one New York Times bestselling author Lorenzo Carcaterra's highly successful career spans more than 25 years of writing for the diverse fields of fiction, non-fiction, television, and film.

Born and raised in New York's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, Carcaterra landed his first job in the newspaper business as a copy boy for The New York Daily News in 1976. He worked his way up to entertainment reporter before leaving the paper in 1982, heading for the green pastures of then-Time Inc. and TV-Cable Week, as senior writer. Nine months later, the magazine folded, leaving him unemployed. A four-month stint at People magazine was followed by an odyssey of writing for a string of start-up publications—Picture Week, Entertainment Tonight Magazine, Special Reports Magazine—and freelancing for dozens of others—The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Newsday Sunday Magazine, Family Circle, Ladies Home Journal, and Twilight Zone Magazine among them.

In 1988, Carcaterra turned to television as a Creative Consultant for the syndicated weekly series Cop Talk: Behind the Shield, produced by Grosso-Jacobson Productions. That led to a job as Managing Editor for the CBS weekly series Top Cops, also with Grosso-Jacobson Productions. Running for four seasons, from 1990 to 1994, the show is still in syndication today worldwide. In addition, he worked on a dozen other pilots, one of which––Secret Service (NBC)––made it to air. It was while at Grosso-Jacobson Productions that Carcaterra wrote and published his first two books­, A Safe Place and Sleepers.

First published in hardcover in 1993, A Safe Place: The True Story of a Father, a Son, a Murder, attracted widespread critical acclaim, with Newsweek calling it, “unforgettable—a remarkable book.” Currently in its 14th printing, it has been sold to 11 foreign countries and has sold close to 220,000 copies.

The 1995 publication of Sleepers, which was a #1 New York Times bestseller in both hardcover and paperback, catapulted Carcaterra to national attention. Sold to 35 foreign countries and now in its 38th printing in the United States, the book has sales exceeding 1.8 million copies. In 1996, Sleepers was made into a feature film starring Brad Pitt, Robert DeNiro, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Bacon, Minnie Driver, and Jason Patric. Carcaterra served as co-producer on the project, which was directed by Academy Award winner Barry Levinson. To date, the movie has earned in excess of $500 million worldwide in combined box-office, video, DVD, and TV sales.

Carcaterra made a smooth transition into writing fiction with his first novel, Apaches, a New York Times bestseller in both hardcover and paperback. Published in a 14 foreign countries, the book has sold more than 450,000 copies and been optioned by producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

He followed that with Gangster, published in hardcover in 2001. The book has sold over 375,000 copies since its 2002 release as a Mass Market Paperback. The novel has been optioned by Joe Roth and been sold to 15 foreign countries.

Carcaterra then wrote Street Boys, a World War II saga inspired by an incident which occurred in Naples, Italy, in 1943. Warner Bros. and Bel-Air Entertainment bought the rights to the story in March 2001 before it was written, and developed the project for director Barry Levinson. Carcaterra wrote the screenplay. The paperback was released in July, 2003 and has since sold 150,000 copies.

Carcaterra's next novel Paradise City was published in hardcover by Ballantine in September 2004 with the paperback following a year later. To date, the novel has sold over 100,000 copies and was optioned by Fox Television to be developed as a weekly series.

In 2007, Carcaterra published Chasers, a sequel to his bestseller Apaches. The paperback version was published in the spring of 2008 and movie rights to the story are once again controlled by Jerry Bruckheimer Productions.

With that, Carcaterra took a different turn and has just completed hi

Reviews

[Megan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sorry, Mr. Carcaterra, but I could not get into this book. I couldn't even finish it. I have been way to tired lately to spend any time or precious energy on a book with such stilted, unnatural dialogue. In the first chapter, we meet 2 unnamed people who are killed by some other unnamed person. In the second chapter, we meet 2 completely different people who are running away from some group of bad guys for reasons unknown. Eh? Starting the reader off in the middle of the action needs to be done with a certain amount of finesse, but all I got was chaos. And clearing up the mysterious beginning in subsequent chapters was largely done via conversations between the characters. Seriously, there is a conversation in which two characters, Kate and Marco, are explaining how they met and why they are hanging out - to each other! What? People in this book aren't so much conversing as spouting exposition at each other, and the dialog that isn't practically pure exposition is still overly earnest. I kept waiting for the action to pick up or the characters to start sounding more real, but at almost a third of the way in, I had to give up.

[Tom Gase · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't want to say I was dissapointed by this book, but it just didn't seem like a typical Lorenzo Carcaterra book. Instead, it seemed closer to a Dan Brown novel. Someone else said it was like watching a shoot-em-up movie and I couldn't agree more. Just too much of the plot seemed TOO unbelievable. My main problem however was Carcaterra seemed to jump forward in the book TOO much. One scene a bad guy character (won't say which one) tied to a chair and you think he is caught. Then a chapter later he is walking freely about to enter a showdown shot-em-up scene. Your reading this going, "Oh wait, he got away??" Like it's a bad Bond film or something. So I didn't like the whole you-just-figure-it-out-on-your-own stuff.

That being said, Carcaterra gets you to really like a lot of his characters, much like he did in Street Boys and Apaches and Gangster, and of course, Sleepers. It was just no ONE character really stood out to me like in Carcaterra's other novels. I figure not every great writer can be flawless, and I'll take this as Carcaterra's one book in the five that I've read that isn't great. I'm still going to continue reading him, and I can't wait for his next book. I do recommend this book for any fans of Carcaterra, but approach knowing it's not the same type of book as his others.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

It takes a lot of bad to earn only two stars when a book includes so many things that I like. Museums, academia, libraries, classical art, the Renaissance, likable characters in a want-to-see setting? This book has it all.

But when you consistently have *all* of your likable characters avoid simple, safe and non-risky alternatives in favor of deadly, insanely stupid and over-the-top ones, and you repeat this over and over and over and over again throughout the entire course of a book, you get two stars. It was so bad that I was practically laughing at the decision-making processes by the end of it. I mean, really. Since pretty much everyone had a death wish, they should have probably just done a collective swan dive off the top of the Ponte Vecchio and been done with it.

[Margo Brooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

This author had visions of Hollywood blockbusters in his mind when he wrote this novel. That is the only way to explain why he spends so much time clumsily avoiding telling the reader what is happening at the outset of the novel. And as it progresses, it gets worse and less and less realistic. For example, after being involved in a chase where two college students make a deal to go see the villain of the plot (and by the way one student is described as a professor when first introduced) they wait 3 days before carrying out that deal and even though they are being chased by a mastermind criminal, in their next scene, they are doing laundry in a public laundromat. Also, what Art history professor jumps from one roof to another and lands in a roll while shooting in two directions at once? The number of mistakes, repetition and unrealistic scenes are just too much for me. Even the prize piece of art was not really lost, and was probably where it should have been all along. As a novel, this book is clumsy and the plot is full of holes. That may be fine for a two-hour movie, but not for a novel I will dedicate days to reading.

[Katy M · Rating 2 out of 5]

The "good guys" in this book, with the exception of Marco and maybe Rumore, were way too bloodthirsty. And, sorry, while I do believe that there are causes worth dying for, taking the law into your own hands to redistribute lost or stolen artwork is not one of them. And there were way too many conversations between antagonists about how they were going to kill each other. Really? I think in reality they would have just done it instead of having prolonged conversations about it.

[Селина Йонкова · Rating 1 out of 5]

дори фактът, че действието се развива предимно във фроренция, считан за един от най- романтичните градове в италия не спасява романа от скуката. а, за книга с приключения, това е непростимо. престрелки, трупове... бля, бля и като капак произведението около, което се вихрят кръвопролитията и борбите, кой крив, кой прав чисто и просто от едно скривалище в което тъне в забрава бива завряно в друго, където го чака същата участ.

[Tony · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sorry if this review sounds similar to several others, but I found this book to be both akin to Dan Brown and a bit contrived. It's popular for characters to have a past connection that seems to bring the story together, but this book takes that plot twist too far. In addition, the reader gets worn out with implausible situations resolved with rabbits pulled from hats. After a while you begin to wonder who will emerge from behind the next curtain. It's s shame. The locale is good and the premise is interesting, making for a potentially excellent story. Overall, however, the book comes up a bit short.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two groups are trying to find the Midnight Angels, three Michelangelo long missing statues. The Vittoria Society locates stolen and lost art to return it to its rightful owners, The Immortals, led by the ruthless Raven, a master thief and former member of the Vittoria, seek only to profit from the stolen art. Kate Westcott, an American art student in Florence and the ward of the Vittoria Society's leader, quite handily tracks down the Midnight Angels, aided by her Italian boyfriend, Marco. From there she has to keep the Raven from getting his hands on them. Gives new meaning to the term “suspension of disbelief.”

[JoAnn/QuAppelle Kirk · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was soooo looking forward to this book - Florence, my favorite European city — and art. What a combination! I even BOUGHT the book, and I rarely buy fiction.

Well, I was greatly disappointed. The plot and premise were just plain ridiculous. So many stupid things were done by the characters. Kate was such a lightweight and all of a sudden she was thrust into something for which she was ill-prepared. Murder and mayhem in the streets of Florence. COME ON, now!

I had to struggle to finish this book. Had it been a library book, it would have been abandoned.

[Stacy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had high expectations of this book. It sounded like it might be the art history version of Indiana Jones or The Librarian...but it wasn't. Implausible situations, unlikeable characters, unrealistic reactions to situations...and bad guys that simply can't understand the concept of 'kill the targets instead of chatting with them.' I tried to like this book but finally gave up and quit reading it after Edwards and Raven had a completely ludicrous conversation where they talked about killing each other but walked away instead.

[Desiree · Rating 2 out of 5]

Midnight Angels tells the story about Kate, heir apparent to the Victoria Society, a secret society that strives to retrieve and reclaim artworks that have been stolen in the past, or simply have been hidden for ages. Kate's parents have paid for this quest with their lives and now that Kate is old enough to follow in their footsteps it is up to her to retrieve an unknown artwork made by the great genius Michelangelo and defeat the society's long standing nemesis, the Raven.

I chose this book because part of it is set in the Corridoio Vasariano, the Vasari Corridor and because of the connection to Michelangelo and Florence.
More then a decade ago I was one of the few fortunate people to be included in an extraordinary tour of the corridor in a period when it was normally closed to the public. So I know from experience that it is a very special and amazing experience.

To start on a positive note I loved the descriptions of Florence, the artworks and specially the Vasari Corridor, but when I started reading this book I almost put it down after a couple of chapters because it was extremely confusing. After 3 or 4 chapters I got the impression that the author had send the manuscript to the publisher and that on it's way there somehow the chapters got out of sequence. Luckily I'm not one to give up easily because later on the story got better.

What I liked about the book is that it gave me some new ideas for good restaurants and places to visit next time when I am in Florence (which will be at Easter) and the general descriptions of the city and its works of art. the book conveys the uniqueness and atmosphere of Florence quite well.

Unfortunately I also found a lot of negative points about the book. The amount of violence was excessive, almost all characters in the book behaved in a totally irrational manner (a cop that only intervenes after several murders have been committed under his nose and with his prior knowledge, really?), and time sequences that don't seem right, etc.
Also there were some historical inaccuracies in the book, for instance when the author tells us that the round windows in the Vasari Corridor were designed by Michelangelo himself which would mean that, unless he was a clairvoyant, he would have designed the windows after his death because the design and construction of the corridor only started in March 1565 while Michelangelo died on 18 February 1564. Likewise, the author tells us towards the end of the book that "Michelangelo was at rest directly across from Galileo and next to his old friend Dante Alighieri".

Indeed the tombs of these three great men are found close together in the Santa Croce but for Dante and Michelangelo to have been friends one would have expected them to have lived in the same period while actually Dante was already dead for over a century when Michelangelo was born. And, minor detail, for Michelangelo to be at rest directly next to Dante, the latter would have to be actually buried there, while in fact the tomb of Dante in Florence is empty because he is buried in Ravenna, the city where he went after he was exiled from Florence.

I'm sure the author can do better than this because there were quite a lot of elements in the book I did like, but unfortunately I cannot give more than a very small 2,5 stars for this work, rounded down due to the historical errors. a pity because I do think that the book has potential.

[Michael crage · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book. The main character is Kate Westcott. She is the daughter of a pair of people who started the Vittoria Society which chases down lost and stolen art items and return them to where they feel they belong. Kate has gone to the city of Florence, Italy to take classes studying Michelangelo. Here she gets together with another student, Marco Scudarti, the only student from Florence in the class. They discover three statues that were3 only rumored to exist, Michelangelo's Midnight Angels.
After they take them, they are pursued by members of the Immortals, led by a former member of the Vittoria Society who broke off from them because instead of returning recovered items to where they belonged, he wanted to sell them to the highest bidder to become rich.

[Ayano · Rating 1 out of 5]

I never gave a book this low rating on Goodreads. The storyline was done before by Dan Brown and so many other authors that is way better. The way to bring the reader in, "the hook" is bad. It took me a while to get a hang of the storyline. When main focus on character changes in chapters, it is too sudden to know where actually that character was and their timeline began little that we don't know what that character in that period of time.

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting mystery. What made it interesting was the setting (Florence) and the subject matter. Art. Precious art. Stolen art?
It was a close look at those who desire to find lost or stolen art so that it may be returned to its owner, to be shared, to enrich the world versus those who desire to find this art for personal enrichment only.
A world of sharks.

[Mike · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. Juvenile fiction, and not very good at that. Inane conversations that drag on and action that borders on the incredulous. I found myself skimming to get to relevant nuggets before throwing in the literary towel. Ughhhh.

[Emiliya · Rating 3 out of 5]

За едно четене.

[Ангел Томов · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book was very enticing! I have never read books from this author, will definitely read another one

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first part of the story was entertaining about the renaissance, but the ending was a disappointment.

[George Casapulla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good beach read.

[Kerry Hillier · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book a bit silly

[Sheryl Sherman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Action packed and lots of dead bodies. I'm happy with the way it ended. Anyone who loves Italy should enjoy this book.

[Helene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Carcaterra has done it again! Another great page-turner, couldn't put it down - 5 Stars!

"In the secret passageways of one of the world’s most majestic cities, an American woman must risk everything to keep the long-lost work of a Renaissance master from falling into the hands of thieves.

In Midnight Angels, acclaimed author Lorenzo Carcaterra returns with a gripping new novel of suspense, revealing a fascinating world where art and crime rendezvous in the shadows, where rumors swirl of undiscovered masterpieces lost to the ages and hidden throughout Europe, and where some will do anything to possess these priceless treasures.

Kate Westcott has come to the beautiful city of Florence to study the masterly Michelangelo, whose work has inspired centuries of admiration, adoration, even lust. Of course she already knows more about him than most art historians, thanks to her guardian and mentor, Professor Richard Dylan Edwards. A preeminent Michelangelo scholar—and a member of the mysterious Vittoria Society—Edwards has devoted his life to chasing down lost and stolen works of art and returning them to their rightful owners.

Exploring the cobbled streets of the Renaissance city with fellow art student Marco Scudarti, Kate feels the pull of destiny. And when the two uncover a secret chamber in a corridor sealed since the time of the Medicis, they make a stunning discovery: Michelangelo’s Midnight Angels—three small, exquisite sculptures long rumored to exist but never before seen. It is the find of a lifetime—and the beginning of their nightmare.

Pursued by operatives of the most heinous criminals, under suspicion from the elite Rome Art Squad, and navigating the underground network of the Vittoria Society, Kate must use all her cunning to elude capture. From the halls of the Uffizi to the Piazza Santa Croce, across the Ponte Vecchio and under the shadow of the Duomo, Kate and Marco race to preserve and protect not only Michelangelo’s work but also their lives.

Midnight Angels is a thrilling, page-turning novel in which Lorenzo Carcaterra evokes an Italian setting so intimate and sensual that it seems to live and breathe along with his characters."

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read Midnight Angels, I'm pretty certain Lorenzo Carcaterra has read The DaVinci Code. This novel could have been called The Michelangelo Code, except it's missing the ancient conspiracies that made Dan Brown's series so engrossing. Instead, you have Kate, a scholar of Michelangelo, who is so into him that she "knows" him well enough to find his missing work. It's so improbable that it refers to Michelangelo's homosexuality as "unsubstantiated rumors," despite the homoerotic love poems he wrote over the years to various men (no, that is not even mentioned in the book), and really delves no deeper into his life than his involvement with the Medici family. Aside from all that, this is written more like a movie treatment of a Grand Theft Auto video game, but with more sympathetic characters. As long as the main character keeps her danger meter low, she is safe. Kate and Marco escape the clutches of the bad guys. Next scene, Kate and Marco are strolling arm-in-arm in the piazza. Enter more random bad guys. Kate and Marco get away. Next scene, Kate and Marco enter cafe arm-in-arm. Enter bad guys. I will say this: Midnight Angels makes it seem like Florence is the most interesting city in which to be an art scholar.

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kate Westcott lost her parents at the age of four and was raised by her guardian to carry on their work. Her parents, both art history professors, founded the Vittoria Society to recover lost works of art and place them in world class museums so everyone could enjoy them and so they could be studied. Working against them is an international group of thieves called The Immortals. As the book opens, Kate is now a grad student who has specialized in Michelangelo. Having won a fellowship to the Michelangelo Institute in Florence, Kate settles in to Italy, makes friends and discovers three lost angels carved by Michelangelo and hidden by the Medici four hundred years ago. But the Immortals want them for Black Market and Kate and her friend Marco must move them to safety before it is too late. Chases, violence and double crosses abound and there are a few too many flashbacks, but this fast-paced read also introduces a fascinating character in Captain Rumore of the Art Squad. This is a cross between the charming Iain Pears art history mysteries and a James Patterson thriller.

[Madeleine (Top Shelf Text) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carcaterra's "Midnight Angels" is another suspenseful novel in the treasure-hunting/art-theft genre that I refer to as my "guilty pleasure genre." The premise of this book was interesting, and the relationships between characters were well thought out, so it was mostly very enjoyable. The only critique that I can think of is that there were a few points where I felt Carcaterra could have gone much deeper into the story, such as with the background of the Vittoria Society. I felt that much of the information was left out, leaving the reader to put the pieces together. Normally, this wouldn't be such a bad strategy, except that in this case the completed puzzle wasn't all that exciting. If Caracaterra had simply gone into more detail about the society itself, I would have been more satisfied with the novel.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, probably because it was set in Florence and reminded me so much of my visit there. It's fun to visualize Santa Croce or any of the churches or piazzas they mention. The plot centered on finding a previously undiscovered sculpture by Michelangelo, and of course there are many twists and turns as other people become involved. It seemed a little incomprehensible that art historians would tote guns and shoot people who stand in their way of the next "find", but I guess it all boils down to greed and the quest for power and/or fame. It was interesting to read in the author's notes at the end that around 30% of his work is unaccounted for. So who knows, maybe there are other works that will be found some day.

[Mary Rocco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty unremarkable action-packed thriller, but the Florence locale and Michelangelo angle was interesting. I had never heard of the Vasari Corridor before and that was quite a revelation. I had been there, walked by it, stayed in a hotel right next to it, and not known it was there. So, that was worth reading the book in itself. A couple of odd anomalies of language (or editing) in the text stood out. One, he used the term "front arms," which made no sense. Why modify the word "arms" with the word "front?" Secondly, he used the word "fuselage" when the context said it should have been "fusillade." This book was not full of sloppy editing like most Kindle books, and maybe that is why those two oddities stood out to me.

[Barbara VA · Rating 3 out of 5]

I so wanted to love this book, it had so many of the traits that I choose for a fun read. I agree with all the comments making this a bad Dan Brown comparison. I will not say Carcaterar is a bad writer being that this is the first of his books that I have read, maybe just not the best genre for him. I would love to see what he has written for Nat Geo Explorer!

That said, Florence and Michelangelo are the stars of the book and I could "see the city and the statues". I have been to Florence and Rome multiple times on art trips and I still kept a pad and pen by me as I was reading for notes for my next trip!

[T · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those who like art and/or Italy, this one deals in Michaelangelo's art and is set in Italy and the US.....

Two opposing groups seek art work by the masters, one to sell to the highest bidder, one to place the art with whom or where the artist intended it.

Lots of dead bodies, double crossing, deals, fighting for art and power and succession in this.

Carcaterra has been around a good deal of time, but never seem to hear about his new works. Looking at his list of books, I seem to have missed several of them, having started with his books Sleepers and Apaches.

[Victoria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Almost from page 1, this book sounded like a remake of the Da Vinci Code or something else by Dan Brown. I can't quite pinpoint the problem, but the plot was just too unbelievable. Lifting three marble statues up through the floor of an office in the Uffizi? Pleeazzzze. And more such incredible stuff. I didn't hate the book but I didn't enjoy it either. Forced myself to read it to the end, though. Just glad I borrowed it from the library and didn't purchase it!