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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN num: 9780451147967
ISBN number: 0451147960
Label: Signet
Manufacturer: Signet
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 304
Printing Date: July 15, 1986
Publishing house: Signet
Sale Popularity Level: 79105
Studio: Signet
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Product Description:
A fabulous 'lost masterpiece' becomes the ultimate prize for an art historian whose ambition consumes everyone around her, an angry young painter with a plan for revenge on the art establishment, and a desperate gallery owner who may have double-crossed his own life away...
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Rated by buyers 
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Ken Follet takes us into the world of art dealing in London. Characters travel Europe on the trail of a missing Modigliani painting. We encounter art historians, art gallery owners, artists, and art forgers. This is not a thriller in the same family with The Key to Rebecca, but it is highly entertaining and somewhat suspenseful.
Rated by buyers 
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My copy of The Gemini Contenders was part of an order of ten books in early January. I chose to read two other books before getting to The Gemini Contenders, so the complaint I am about to write is too late for a refund from Amazon.
I read through page 288 in my copy of The Gemini Contenders when I was suddenly confronted by page 273 of an entirely different book, A Stranger in the Family by Steven Naifen and Gregory White Smith! The typeface of this book is different from that of Ludlum's book.
A Stranger in the Family continues to page 364, and then The Gemini Contenders resumes at page 321 and goes to page 384, where it is interrupted once more at page 369 of A Stranger in the Family, which terminates at page 400.
So I received incomplete parts of two books bound together in the cover of The Gemini Contenders! Maybe this "book" will turn out to be a valuable object, sought after by collectors of publishing freaks. But I just wanted a good read of a continuous individual title. If it's not too late, I'd like to receive a normal copy of The Gemini Contenders.
William Moriarty
Rated by buyers 
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There's not much to say in reviewing the Modigliani Scandal, an early Follett novel published before he hit it big with the World War II thriller "Eye of the Needle." In a forward for the version I read, Follett acknowledges that this little story about art dealers, artists and thieves in London doesn't have much depth. Still, it is fun to read and to see traces of the greatness that is to come. There really aren't any main characters, just a bunch of story lines that all merge together in the end. The plot concerns the chase for a rare painting by a famous Italian artist, Modigliani. The plot also follows a Lucian Black as he tries to open his own art gallery. The book is short and easy to read, and if you're a Follett fan, I recommend you read this, but I don't think I'd recommend that you pay money for it. It's just not that good of a book.
Rated by buyers 
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Why all the negative reviews???
A delightful little mystery, written when he was still an unknown, and I think originally published under some other name? Of course you cannot compare this little book (a short one) with the best of the best sellers today, but you must remember it was written many years ago. Put yourself in 1986 or whenever this was written when you read it.
Fans of Ken Follett must get this book. I think it's even better than some of the books written right after he got famous, which I thought were too pretentious (the books, not him). You should be grateful this book has been reprinted.
Rated by buyers -
I have not read much of Follett's work but I hope the rest is better than this. It must be, as Follett has sold more than 50 million books. On his website he admits that this early work, written under a pseudonyme and then re-released after he had developed a following, is not very good. In the introduction, he indicates that he had not really developed his successful style at this point, and that his aim (something to do with an evaluation of pre-destiny) exceeded his reach here.
Actually the story line has a nugget of a well-developed caper to it, but the characters are hopeless. They suddenly appear, get a minor character development, do something inane or out of character and then disappear. At least in a Seinfeld episode, everyone's story line gets tied out as the credits role.
The gist of this thing is there are several competing groups seeking a lost masterpiece by the Italian 20th century painter Modigliani. This painter caroused and drank to excess, died poor and unappreciated, then became a star posthumously mostly due to the interest and purchases of the eccentric Albert Barnes of Philadelphia. Our story line here is that Modigliani painted while drunk or under the influence of drugs, and one of those paintings was not destroyed by the artist but has disappeared from the art world.
Consider our loopy collection of characters next. Problem number one is that none of them is the protaganist or even the central character. They just appear and disappear as if in an Ionesco play.
Follett gives us a young British girl living in Paris. She takes off after the lost painting, spending the very first several days looking in Catholic churches, before remembering that Modigliani was Jewish. You would think someone with a degree in art history who had studied Modigliani extensively would know that, as it was an essential fact in his relationship with the Paris art world.
Next we have a movie star, who frets over her inability to change the world, especially to wipe out poverty. She then meets a rogue at a cocktail party, instantly moves in with him, discovers he has quite a past, becomes addicted to speed, and decides to steal an art collection valued at $1 MM.
How about the art gallery owner who is impotent until he sees his wife cheating on him with multiple simultaneous partners? I dont know how that advances the story. It is almost like Follett had a few characters left over from another book that he wanted to use up before they reached their sell by date.
Then there is the painter, who gets run out of the cliquish London art world because he caused a scene at a cocktail party and his paintings sell for more than they are worth. So he turns to forgery, to make the point that the system is rigged against the living painter who needs to pay the mortgage.
Finally, we have a group of 10 top London art dealers who buy 10 forgeries in one day. Incompetence seems to know no boundaries here.
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