The Rescue Artist

April 11, 2005
The little-known world of art theft is compellingly portrayed in Dolnick's account of the 1994 theft and recovery of Edvard Munch's iconic painting The Scream.
The theft was carried out with almost comical ease at Norway's National Gallery in Oslo on the very morning that the Winter Olympics began in that city. Despite the low-tech nature of the crime, the local police were baffled, and Dolnick (Down the Great Unknown
; Madness on the Couch
) makes a convincing case that the fortunate resolution of the investigation was almost exclusively due to the expertise, ingenuity and daring of the "rescue artist" of the title: Charley Hill, a Scotland Yard undercover officer and former Fulbright scholar who has made recovering stolen art treasures his life's work. Hill is a larger-than-life figure who seems lifted from the pages of Elmore Leonard, although his adversaries in this inquiry are fairly pedestrian. While the path to the painting's retrieval is relatively straightforward once some shady characters put the word out that they can get their hands on it, the narrative's frequent detours to other crimes and engaging escapades from Hill's past elevate this work above last year's similar The Irish Game
by Matthew Hart. 16 pages of b&w and 8 pages of color photos not seen by PW
. Agent, Rafe Sagalyn.

December 1, 2005
Adult/High School -A compelling account of the 1994 theft of one of the world's most famous paintings, "The Scream". Dolnick focuses on the hero of the case, Scotland Yard's Art Squad specialist Charley Hill. Because of Hill's earlier success in retrieving stolen art treasures, he was charged with the difficult job of locating the painting and successfully retrieving it in its original condition. While the author keeps readers in suspense as he digresses frequently to tell the story of other notorious art thefts and art thieves, diligent readers will be treated to a nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat account of the painting's rescue. Along the way, Dolnick imparts a great deal of information not only about Edvard Munch, but also about the art world's surprisingly lax security measures and the lack of motivation on the part of authorities charged with retrieving art treasures. In spite of the asides, this is a tightly woven, fast-paced story. Teens interested in art and/or investigative journalism will enjoy this real-life whodunit." -Catherine Gilbride, Farifax County Public Library, VA"

Copyright 2005 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2005
Dolnick attempts to disabuse readers of the notion that art thieves are glamorous, yet he can't help but contribute to our fascination with art crime because the stories he tells are so full of daring, bizarre twists, and unsolved mysteries. His lively and episodic tour of the art underworld covers some of the same terrain as Matthew Hart's " The Irish Game: A True History of Crime and Art "(2004) until he veers off to profile art sleuth Charley Hill, an intriguing man who loves the adrenalin rush of undercover work. The amazing story of Hill's recovery of Edvard Munch's " The Scream," brazenly snatched from Norway's National Gallery on the day the 1994 Olympic Winter Games opened in a nearby city, is a movie waiting to be shot. Dolnick is equally engaging in his discussion of why art crime is a "thriving industry" and in his chronicle of Munch's life, how " The Scream "became a pop icon, and the theft of another version of the painting 10 years later. Where there's art, there are thieves and electrifying stories to tell.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)