Midnight Angels: A Novel

By Lorenzo Carcaterra

Kate Westcott, a gifted American art student, has come to Florence to study Michelangelo. Exploring the cobbled streets of the Renaissance city with her fellow student Marco, Kate feels the pull of destiny. And when the two uncover a chamber in a corridor sealed since the time of the Medicis, they make a stunning discovery: Michelangelo’s Midnight Angels—three small, exquisite sculptures long rumored to exist but never before seen. It is the find of a lifetime—and the beginning of a nightmare.

Pursued by criminals, suspected by the Rome Art Squad, and navigating the underground network of a secret society, Kate and Marco must use all their cunning to protect Michelangelo’s work—and their lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jul 6, 2010
• ISBN: 9780345521989

Reviews for Midnight Angels

[adelaide1_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Absolutely riveting. I was enthralled all the way through. Lorenzo Carcaterra has become one of my favorite authors. He has a strong drive for criminal drama. I am looking forward to his next novel.

[jimgysin_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

It takes a lot of bad to earn only two stars when a book includes so many things that I like. Museums, academia, libraries, classical art, the Renaissance, likable characters in a want-to-see setting? This book has it all.

But when you consistently have *all* of your likable characters avoid simple, safe and non-risky alternatives in favor of deadly, insanely stupid and over-the-top ones, and you repeat this over and over and over and over again throughout the entire course of a book, you get two stars. It was so bad that I was practically laughing at the decision-making processes by the end of it. I mean, really. Since pretty much everyone had a death wish, they should have probably just done a collective swan dive off the top of the Ponte Vecchio and been done with it.

[elizabethanns_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

-not bad-filled a gap when I needed something to read but won't rush out for others by this author but will keep him in mind

[qu33nb33 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

nice quick read, a little predictable..but enjoyable!

[chatterbox_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I thought it might be interesting to read a book about art crime in Florence while reading a bio of Lorenzo de Medici. Excellent idea, but this novel was a bad one to choose. It's a Swiss cheese of a book, full of plot holes and jumps in narrative, replete with characters straight from central casting (the cardboard variety, who can only speak in cliches...) If this were a movie, it wouldn't even make it to B movie cult status.The gist of the plot is that Kate, a young woman in her 20s, has a Harry Potter-esque mission -- to take up from her murdered parents in fighting the forces of evil. In this case, the force of evil is a nasty and corrupt guy, once known as David and now simply "the Raven". The story, however, is so implausible, that I started laughing, rather than feeling tension, about halfway through. The characters are caricatures, and the only reason this gets two stars rather than 1/2 star is the fact that some of the descriptions of Florence are interesting. And even then I'm feeling generous; not only is the implausibility factor high, but the errors are silly and numerous. Someone is referred to as a "navy sailor" (are there many army sailors? OK, yes, Marines, but they are called Marines...); silly typos such as "undo influence" rather than "undue influence" litter the pages. Careless plotting/characterization/writing/editing...There are plenty of other interesting art world mysteries/thrillers out there. Check out some early works by Peter Watson (Landscape of Lies) or Ian Pears's books instead.