The Art Thief
A Novel
Chapter 1
It was almost as if she were waiting, hanging there, in the painted darkness.
The small Baroque church of Santa Giuliana in Trastevere huddled in a corner of the warm Roman night. The streets were blue and motionless, illuminated only by the hushed light of a streetlamp from the square nearby.
Then there was a sound. Inside the church.
It was the faintest scream of metal on metal, barely perceptible in daylight, but now like a shriek of white against black. Then it stopped. The sound had been only momentary, but it echoed.
From out of the belly of the sealed church, a bird rose. A pigeon fluttered frantically along the shadowy chapel walls and swooped through the vaults and down the transept, carving a path blindly through the inky cavernous interior.
Then the alarm ... read full excerpt from The Art Thief: A Novel ebook
