Product Description

This title has high adventure, and mind-blowing suspense. Tom Kirk, the world's greatest art thief, is back on another life-threatening mission. In London, an Auschwitz survivor is murdered in his hospital bed, his killers making off with a macabre trophy - his severed left arm. In Fort Mead, Maryland, a vicious gang breaks into the NSA museum and steals a World War II Enigma machine, lynching the guard who happens to cross their path. Meanwhile, in Prague, a frenzied and mindless anti-Semitic attack on a synagogue culminates in the theft of a seemingly worthless painting by a little known Czech artist called Karel Bellak. A year has passed since Tom Kirk, the world's greatest art thief, decided to put his criminal past behind him and embark on a new career, on the right side of the law . Then, three major thefts occur, and suddenly Tom is confronted with a deadly mystery and a sinister face from the past.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #94803 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 592 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
James Twining's The Black Sun triumphantly proves that his impressive debut novel, The Double Eagle, was no fluke--this second outing for his engaging protagonist Tom Kirk is actually more assured than the first one, and is proof that the gameplan created by the author for his character is spooling out very nicely indeed.

A whole year has passed since art thief Tom Kirk made a resolution to abjure his criminal activities. But--it goes without saying--he finds himself unable to entirely leave his old life behind (after all, Twining would have no book in that the case). Three major art thefts occur, while in London a survivor of the death camps is killed in hospital. His murderers have removed a grisly relic from the crime scene: the dead man's left arm. Soon, Kirk finds himself drawn into a mystifying (and highly dangerous) situation, with yet another element complicating the already labyrinthine plot: a gang has broken into the NSA museum and made off with a decoding machine.

Crime and thriller aficionados often play the game of defining those two genres, and while there are significant crimes in Twining's highly entertaining novel, it’s the thriller format’s international dimension that adds an extra vigour, an element Twining exploits with the brio that marks out the very best thriller writers. One senses a certain Dan Brown syndrome here (and that probably won't do James Twining's sales any harm), but he remains very much his own man, and if Brown has virtually hijacked certain thriller motifs, that's no reason for other novelists not to utilise them -- particularly when they are as well handled as they are in The Black Sun.

--Barry Forshaw

Review
Praise for 'The Black Sun' 'A story that harks back to the Nazis, Hitler, and a legendary treasure. What more could you want? If there's a better thriller this year I would like to see it' Jack Higgins, author of 'Without Mercy' and 'The Eagle Has Landed'. 'Dan Brown eat your heart out.' Northern Echo 'A thrilling read' Cork Evening Echo Praise for 'The Double Eagle.' 'A carefully constructed tale straight out of the Dan Brown mould of thriller writing.' Sunday Sun "The Double Eagle" will leave you breathless, but never dizzy. Solid debut world.' Ladsmag 'This would make the perfect Tom Cruise movie.' The Independent on Sunday 'A captivating, engrossing debut!a fast-paced tale of international crime and skullduggery written with style and panache. Twining is a worthy successor to Forsyth, Follett, and Higgins. Highly recommended.' Christoper Reich

You got your neo-Nazis, your hidden treasure, your frenetic action scenes, your life-or-death, fate-of-the-nation issues . . . but it don't mean a thing if you ain't got that rooting interest.Back for a second go-round is high-end art thief Tom Kirk, as woefully wooden as he was in his debut (The Double Eagle, 2005). Maybe more so, inasmuch as he's reformed-rectitude, unfortunately, seldom counting for much in the charisma department. Approached by British Intelligence, Kirk learns of two related unsettling developments: (1) A Nazi derivative called Kristall Blade (derived in turn from Kristallnacht) has become virulently operational, and (2) the group has some kind of collusive relationship with Kirk's erstwhile best friend, transmogrified through betrayal into his bitterest enemy. MI6 is asking for Kirk's help, Agent Turnbull makes clear, with nothing tangible to offer in return, hoping instead to persuade him that Kristall Blade is not merely heinous but a dire threat to the nation's stability. True enough, Agent Turnbull knows his man; still, it's the name Henry Julius Renwick that really gets Kirk's attention. And so he signs on, and before long is deeply involved in trying to determine how a seemingly humdrum painting connects to the mutilation and murder of a Holocaust survivor, connects to an elite Nazi secret society, connects to an American backwoods cult, connects to the gorgeous and storied Amber Room (commissioned by Frederick the Great as a gift for Catherine the Great), connects to a pair of decades-old trains in an abandoned Austrian copper mine. And how all of this connects to Henry (Judas) Renwick, Kirk's bete noir, a man with as charmed a life as Holmes's Moriarty-to whom, at a pivotal moment, bested and beleaguered, he gets to utter ("through clenched teeth") that sturdy hack fiction line: "This isn't over, Harry."Frenetic action scenes do not a thriller make. (Kirkus Reviews)

Sydney Morning Herald, January 2006
Twining is a natural entertainer

Customer Reviews

Outstandingly average, or just above being so.
This book follows the current fashionable trend that all authors are working in of late, namely a fuzzy grey area in history opens up potential deceipt and villians plotting to get rich and/or overthrow the world but for the intervention of the books hero(s).

And well, to be honest it still works. I cant count how many books I have read now that are so undeniably similar to this one but it inevitably keeps you reading.

This time its the mysterious nazi gold train that the heroes are tracking racing against both those that hid the train and their evil adversaries to be the first to reach it (told you it was firmiliar). The thing about this type of book is that the first or best one in the trend you read you will probably use as a measure for all others and your personal opinions of the book will reflect this.

That said the book is outstandingly average or just above being so. It keeps you reading and turning the pages and is quite enjoyable all around. Definitely worth the money you may pay for it even as just a side read for before bed or in spare time, it wont consume your life but it wont leave you feeling let down either.

A little rushed
I really enjoyed Tom Kirks 1st adventure, quite clever.. this episode was frankly disappointing... the ending was rushed & the ending an anti climax... that's me finished with Mr Kirk's adventures.. Tom.. Dublin

Fast-paced international thriller
Really enjoyed this novel. The author manages to generate a fast-pace while also developing his characters well - a feat not always acheived by some novelists out there. I liked the international dimension to the novel, and James Twining uses the different locations to sustain the pace as well as educate the reader (without it being in your face). Will certainly read his first book and await the next one.