Charlesgate Confidential

by Scott Von Doviak

Overview

"CHARLESGATE CONFIDENTIAL is terrific." - Stephen King

A breathtakingly clever, twist-filled narrative that moves from 1946 to 1988 to 2014 and back again, CHARLESGATE CONFIDENTIAL establishes Scott Von Doviak as a storyteller of the first order.

A group of criminals in 1946 pull off the heist of the century, stealing a dozen priceless works of art from a Boston museum. But while the thieves get caught, the art is never found. Forty years later, the last surviving thief gets out of jail and goes hunting for the loot, involving some innocent college students in his dangerous plan - and thirty years after that, in the present day, the former college kids, now all grown up, are drawn back into danger as the still-missing art tempts a deadly new generation of treasure hunters. A breathtakingly clever, twist-filled narrative that moves from 1946 to 1988 to 2014 and back again, CHARLESGATE CONFIDENTIAL establishes Scott Von Doviak as a storyteller of the first order, and will leave you guessing until the very last page.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781785657191
Publisher:	Titan
Publication date:	09/17/2019
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	313,125
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Scott Von Doviak is the film critic for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and has written about movies for the Houston Chronicle and the A.V. Club. He is also the author of three non-fiction books, including Hick Flicks: The Rise and Fall of Redneck Cinema, If You Like the Terminator..., and Stephen Kins Films FAQ. He lives in Texas.

Editorial Reviews

Impressive…inventive…immensely enjoyable.” - Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal & chosen by Wall Street Journal for "Best of 2018"  

“CHARLESGATE CONFIDENTIAL IS TERRIFIC!”- Stephen King

“Charlesgate Confidential is the sort of canny, witty crime novel that doesn’t come along often enough. Scott Von Doviak is terrific at Boston voices and a fearless plotter. The crew at Hard Case Crime has found another gem! May they never reform.”  – Owen King, author of Double Feature and co-author of Sleeping Beauties

"An all around superior thriller." - Booklist Starred Review 

"a wildly inventive fantasia spiced with frequent revelations of new crimes and new solutions."   - Kirkus Reviews

“Highly entertaining…era-bending caper novel.” - Publishers Weekly

"Von Doviak captures perfectly the dialogue, mood and mores of each of the eras that comprise his tale." -BookReporter

“Charlesgate Confidential  is a riveting tale, a hard-boiled art heist worthy of Dashiell Hammett in his prime.” – Ernie Cline, author of Ready Player One

“Scott Von Doviak’s Charlesgate Confidential is a corker! With its intriguing plot that spreads across three distinct time periods, quirky characters quick with the witty repartee, and an amazing sense of place and time, it had me reading way past my designated bedtime. Boston, and its love for the home team—GO RED SOX—really comes alive in the various years depicted. Couldn’t imagine Charlesgate Confidential not making many Crime/Mystery Best Of Lists next year.”  – Thomas E. Sniegoski, New York Times Bestselling author

"It’s impressive that Von Doviak captures the tenor of the times from the criminal milieu of 1946, to the drug and alcohol fueled students living in the Charlesgate dorm in 1986, to the swanky Charlesgate condo residents in 2014. If you’re looking for an entertaining caper novel, I highly recommend Charlesgate Confidential." - George Kelley

“A beautifully plotted, satisfyingly simple heist and murder novel. Highly recommended for noir fans!” - The Crime Review

From the Publisher

07/16/2018
An art heist turns treasure hunt for a motley crew of Boston crooks, cops, and college students in Van Doviak’s highly entertaining debut, which moves the infamous 1990 robbery of Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum to 1946, then jumps ahead chapter by chapter to 1986 and 2014 and back again. In 1946, at the seedy real-life Charlesgate Hotel in Back Bay, Dave T’s illegal card game is held up by the Devlin brothers—and Dave realizes he has found a couple of patsies for the heist. Forty years later, college reporter Tommy Donnelly begins a history series on his dorm building, formerly the Charlesgate. And in the refurbished high-end condos of the 2014 Charlesgate, tenant Jackie St. John Osborne decides she would like the multimillion-dollar reward for the return of the stolen paintings by Vermeer, Rembrandt, and company. Smooth, often funny dialogue more than compensates for some left-field plot developments. Plenty of Red Sox references—it’s Beantown, Jake—add to the appeal of this era-bending caper novel. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

2018-07-02
Wondering who pulled off the never-solved 1990 heist at Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, which netted the thieves the richest haul still unrecovered in the history of art theft? Von Doviak's waggish debut has the answer to this question—and much, much more.In 1946, according to Von Doviak, two fake cops who gained admittance to the museum late one night along with their confederates make off with a collection of 13 artworks by Rembrandt, Vermeer, and more, worth an estimated $500 million. Despite intensive investigation and a well-publicized, high-figure reward, the case remains unsolved in 1986, when Tommy Donnelly, a student living in Emerson College's Charlesgate student residence, a former hotel with a colorful history, sets out to write Charlesgate Confidential, a history of the place, and swiftly finds links between the Charlesgate, which in its day hosted everything from Jimmy Dryden's stable of prostitutes (sixth floor) to Dave T's high-stakes poker game (eighth floor) and the storied robbery. The most intriguing link: Days before the robbery, three gunmen swooped down on Dave T's, made off with the proceeds, and returned shortly after the robbery to execute Fat Dave, the Red Room Lounge bartender who identified them to their victim, whom he calls "Other Dave," leading to the conscription of one of the gunmen as a fake cop in the museum robbery and his violent death. In 2014—are you still following this?—a reunion of Tommy Donnelly's Emerson class spearheaded by classmate Jackie St. John digs even deeper into the past, which has now gotten pretty doggone deep.Instead of presenting these three narrative layers in chronological order, Von Doviak cuts constantly from one to the other in a wildly inventive fantasia spiced with frequent revelations of new crimes and new solutions. The only downside: The last round of revelations doesn't carry any more weight than the others.

Kirkus Reviews

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