The Girl with the Botticelli Eyes

by Herbert Lieberman

When a madman begins using the work of Botticelli as inspiration for his gruesome tableaus, a New York museum curator is the only man who can stop himMike Manship is an up-and-coming curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. With a Botticelli retrospective fast approaching, Manship is poised to become the Met’s director if he can secure three final drawings from Italy. Standing in his way is Ludovico Borghini, a neo-fascist count with a fanatical devotion to his Italian heritage and a deadly obsession with the Renaissance master’s work. Between them are the three masterpieces and the alluring Isobel Cattaneo, a direct descendant of Botticelli’s greatest muse, Simonetta.Borghini is determined to maintain possession of the drawings, and in the grips of his mania, he kidnaps Cattaneo, whom he suspects of aiding Manship. As the search for Cattaneo reaches a fever pitch, Manship discovers that Borghini is a much more twisted nemesis than he could ever have anticipated—one whose depravity reaches chilling depths.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Art, Italy, Audiobook, Mystery Thriller, Thriller

389 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 1996

About the author

Herbert Liberman received his AB from City College of New York and his AM from Columbia University. He is a former managing editor of the Reader's Digest Book Club.

The author of Crawlspace, City of the Dead, The Climate of Hell, and several other acclaimed novels, Herbert Lieberman is a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship and a winner of France’s coveted Grand Prix de Littérature Policière for City of the Dead. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife. He and his wife Judith have one daughter and twin granddaughters.

Reviews

[Wingswept · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like others have said, the book is a bit hard to get into at first, but if you can get past that initial hurdle the read is fairly enjoyable. The sense to detail and ride to the climax of the plot left me wanting to stay up late to read a bit more each night.

[Rachel Sanders · Rating 2 out of 5]

If I read more thrillers I would probably rate this lower. While I was on the edge of my seat waiting to figure out what happens, I did not enjoy the backstory on the villain or following Manship. I did enjoy the amount of gore and shock factor there was with the violence doled out on our characters, and I am an art lover so the conversation on the benefits of art to society had me drawn in.

SPOILERS!

I HATED how we did not get to see Isobel Catteneo get to New York. We left her in Rome running from her captor and then four chapters later we see her in New York! It was meant to be a plot twisty surprise, but it wasn't a surprise because we all knew she would end up there anyway. It was so unsatisfying and frustrating.

[Gay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book by Herbert Lieberman is a good story of mystery and intrigue with a lot of art culture thrown in. It centers around the efforts of a New York Metropolitan Museum curator's effort to assemble the paintings of Sandro Botticelli in celebration of his 550th birthday. His nemesis' are his boss at the museum and a mad Italian politico who uses murder and mayhem to keep Italian art treasures for the Italians. Especially in the spotlight are Botticelli's Madonnas. The book is well-written, mostly believable, and definitely entertaining.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

The plot is slow to pick up momentum and I had difficulty keeping attention in some parts. The final showdown is somewhat strange, too.

But all in all, I think it was worth the reading. It's an interesting crime/thriller that has the dimension of art and the art world that makes it different and intriguing. 80% of the time, I found the protagonist, Mark Manship, mildly annoying, but I love the character of Isobel Cattaneo.

[Corinne Yee · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an ok thriller/mystery but not as engaging as many I have read. The art details were interesting, though.

[Samantha Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Took forever to get very interesting. Once it did, it felt like the climax didn't last very long in comparison to the anticipation leading up to it.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining, nice art novel.

This story was well thought out and written. While it’s centered around a grand Botticelli exhibit, it is less about the artist and more about the gathering of an artists’ entire collection and those repercussions or consequences of doing so. Taking place in modern times, the story is well developed and certainly a page turner. There was enough “educational” content of the art world to satisfy that itch, but also a good chase to the plot.
A big reason for the 3 star rating is the extremely poor editing. Weird punctuation all over, misplace words. I don’t usually just a book on this, but it was enough to be distracting.
Overall, I’d recommend.

[Barbararose · Rating 5 out of 5]

This took me back to Italy

I could not stop reading. I devoured every word. Mark Manship had been searching, Europe for 5 years for the Metropolitan Museum’s planned 550 th birthday of Botticelli exhibit.
There remained the fruitless search for the last 3 of 13 sketches of the Madonna.

[Shauna Elias · Rating 2 out of 5]

Easy read. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough to the plot.

[Brugel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Polar sur Botticelli et le milieu des musées. Un peu désuet à lire aujourd'hui

[Georges · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bon livre quoi que moin sombre et tordu que ce que l'ont pourrait s'attendre de Libermann. Quand même bon mais pas son meilleur.

[Constance Fastré · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un thriller plutôt décevant. Le style en lui-même n’est pas agréable à lire: les phrases restent continuellement en suspens et il y a trop peu de détails.
De plus, les personnages sont tellement 'cliché' que ça en devient vraiment ennuyeux. C’est prévisible et franchement bateau à certains moments. Ce qui est dommage, c’est que le milieu artistique est bien choisi, j’ai vraiment eu envie d’en savoir plus sur Botticelli, et de m’intéresser un peu plus au monde de l’art en général, aller dans des musées, etc.
De manière plus précise, le personnage du comte est relativement ridicule, trop exagérée, sa psychose est trop ‘typique’ de tous les psychopathes de romans de gare.
La romance entre Manship et Cattaneo est inintéressante et relativement mal racontée, elle ne fait pas vraiment rêver et ne paraît en aucun cas possible. Les deux personnages sont eux aussi stéréotypés, et finalement, on ne s'y attache pas du tout.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

A museum curator crosses paths with a diabolical killer while putting together a show on Botticelli's works. I would have given this a higher rating but for the nonsense surrounding the killer. I'm sick of the gory details of the killer's murders. I don't need it. It isn't creative, it's just unnecessary to the story. I skipped whole chapters. That said, I liked the character development of the curator, and I liked the bits of history surrounding the painter.

[Anne Hawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a little hard to get started, but once I got into it, it was very interesting. The premise is that a killer is murdering young women and carving out their eyes. At the same time, there is a major show of Botticelli which is being planned by a curator on the way up. He is trying to arrange to get a descendant of one of Botticelli's young models who resembles her to come to the exhibition. The two stories merge in a dramatic and life changing way.

[Niki · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was excited to read this book because I seem to love anything with an attachment to art. I enjoyed the ties in the story to Botticelli in the characters and the art but felt like the plot was hard to follow. It seemed like many times in this book I had to back track and figure out who they were talking about or what was going on.

[Christy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is definitely not one I would've picked to read, but because I had been staring at the cover at work for several years I thought why not. Except for chapter 34 (the only good chapter in my opinion) the whole story seemed flat and non dramatic, and an somewhat predictable ending. If you are into art history then you might enjoy this read much more then I did.

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book gets some points from me for its setting - the engineering of a major showing of an artist in the Metropolitan Museum of Art,the political back biting behind the scenes at the museum and George Guidall's usual quality narration.

[Joanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

listening...I would give this a 2.5. On the plus side, the insights into the world of art museums and exhibitions were really interesting. On the minus side, the violence of the villain was pretty chilling. While there were some twists to the plot, it was a bit simplistic.

[Barb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty greusom and many slow spots but overall I liked it. The main attraction is the setting - the exhibit of Botticelli paintings at the New York Art Museum to honor Botticelli's 550th B-day. Under neath is a killer/maniac.

[Captain Curmudgeon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really sucks. I was reading the last part at a great rate just to get through it. Won't be reading anything else by this author.

[Jan C · Rating 1 out of 5]

It got too gory for me.

So I gave it up.

[Cyril · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gory but fascinating

[Rosemarie Boll · Rating 2 out of 5]

tedious

[Lapetitesteph]

Excellent.

[Mariesa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't believe I'm complaining about too much character development but ... the author spent way too much time dwelling on why the villain was so psychologically screwed up.

[Justine · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was good but it lacked action. For a novel with this kind of plot, a more menacing villain could have been created. The drama was a bit too easy, nothing gripping about it.

[VerJean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some art history, a quest to have a descendant to involved, a madman killer = some tense situations.
An art thriller.
Read in 2010.

[Lauretta]

I listened to the audiobook

[BJC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice and creepy.

[Ellen]

Wow. Really good. Tense. George Guidall - great, as always.