St. Agatha's Breast: A Novel - Softcover

Van Adler, T. C.

3.24

21 ratings by Goodreads

9781555837082: St. Agatha's Breast: A Novel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1555837085 ISBN 13: 9781555837082

Publisher: Alyson Books, 2001

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"A fascinating mixture of good, evil, blood, religion, and the Internet, this first novel is a compelling read." -Library Journal

For the monks of San Redempto, a decaying monastery in Rome, the rewards of embezzlement and the indulgence of their carnal appetites are distraction enough to prevent them from noticing that someone has been plundering the monastery of its treasure. But when archivist Brocard Curtis identifies the artist of the one remaining painting as 17th-century master Nicolas Poussin, they find themselves under close and unwelcome scrutiny. Ambitiously offbeat and graphically startling, St. Agatha's Breast is a brilliant mystery of corruption, sexuality, and murder.

T.C. Van Adler is very experienced in the worlds of both art and the church. Van Adler is a pseudonym.

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About the Author:

T.C. Van Adler is very experienced in the worlds of both art and the church. Van Adler is a pseudonym.

From Kirkus Reviews:

A debut thriller set in an Italian monasterymany generations removed from the abbey of The Name of the Rose, but completely faithful to its spirit. Had Martin Luther ever turned his hand to potboilers, he might have bequeathed us with something like this: a decadent abbey, inhabited by perverted maniacs, falls under the rule of a faithless prior whose cynicism is outstripped only by that of his venal underlings who, with Napoleonic zeal, busy themselves (between orgies) with looting and embezzling the abbeys treasury. Long forgotten amid the plundered splendors of the abbey is a magnificent portrait of St. Agatha, signed Nicolas Poussin, 1629. The monks of San Redempto probably know more about Poussin than they do about St. Agatha, but neither name is likely to excite much interest among themuntil the portrait suddenly vanishes. It begins to look as if a crime has disturbed the abbeys peace. Whom shall we look to, for either guidance or arrest? Father Prior, a sadomasochist and fascist, whose subterranean torture chamber becomes the scene of an even worse crime than the portraits theft? The coprophilic Father Otger? Antonio, the porter, or his brother Manolo, the cook (both of whom have turned a tidy profit over the years through their diligent manipulation of the abbeys accounts)? What about the seemingly innocent, apparently simple Father Brocard, assigned to the investigation by the prior as a means of ensuring that case will never be solved? Or the art historian Hoop Rhutten, whose present connections within the art world disguise his former life as a monk of San Redempto? Under Luthers stern gaze, the paintings disappearance would have seemed trivial, compared with the barbarities practiced daily at San Redempto. A caricature of religion and religious life, too heavy-handed to be funny, too obvious to be diverting. -- Copyright �1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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