with Christopher Angel
We are delighted to welcome filmmaker — and new novelist — Christopher Angel to Omnimystery News today.
Christopher's intriguingly titled thriller is The Mona Lisa Speaks (Over The Edge Books, April 2013 trade paperback and ebook formats).
We recently had a chance to talk to Christopher about his book, an excerpt of which follows our conversation.
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Omnimystery News: We introduced The Mona Lisa Speaks as a "thriller". Would you agree?
Photo provided courtesy of
Christopher Angel
Christopher Angel: Categorizing a book in a genre was one of the more fraught parts of the book writing and publishing process for me. It seems, in this age of e-books and increased reading choice, that publishers demand that a book adhere to certain genre conventions, which can be scary for books that might cross over them. Or, as in my case, it's also scary when a book fits into one of the rarer genres. I am lucky in one sense, since The Mona Lisa Speaks is so specifically an art heist story. However, what I've felt compelled to do is also more broadly refer to it as a thriller, since this increases its chances for exposure. It's one of the few times I've found that being more general is actually helpful. And hopefully this story is indeed thrilling!
OMN: As a first-time novelist, did you, as we often hear it said, "write what you know"?
CA: I took this advice to heart when I started writing my novel. One of the first major decisions I made was to make my main character (Robertson Ross) a Canadian from the Yukon in the far north. I myself am Canadian, and although I grew up in Toronto, I had recently visited Whitehorse to teach a week long seminar on film editing, and fell in love with the place and gained such an appreciation for the film-makers I met up there. I also felt that I could naturally capture the voice of a Canadian ex-pat visiting the great city of Paris — that my own voice and writing style, honed in Canadian schools, could be harnessed much more easily for a Canadian character. I even went as far to re-install Canadian English spell check dictionaries in my word processors!
OMN: Tell us a little more about the background to the story.
CA: The inspiration for this story began with the most innocent seeming Google search. I was vacationing in Paris, and, like most tourists, went to visit the Louvre and see the Mona Lisa. But I left the Louvre wondering why the Mona Lisa was the most famous painting there, since there were many amazing works of art. My Google search turned up a surprising answer: the Mona Lisa had been stolen in 1911, and had gone missing for two years.
As I considered how to tell this story, and continued basic web research on the subject, I was faced with a couple more choices. The part of the story I found the most interesting was trying to imagine what it would be like to be on the lam with the Mona Lisa for two years. What was going through the thief's mind? What did he do with her? As I researched, and found amazing contemporary newspaper accounts of the theft, and the eventual Italian trial of the thief, Vincezo Peruggia, it became clear he had refused to comment at all on this topic, and had taken this secret to the grave. So, if I wanted to write about this, I would have to create a speculative work of fiction.
The next choice was then whether to keep the period piece aspect of the story and set it in 1911, or to update it to modern times. As I thought about some of the themes I wanted to explore, such as the cult of fame of some works of art, what it means to be in the presence of an "authentic original work of art" in an age of digital copies, and how our experience of art is now mediated through technology, I made the decision to update the story. In the end, I feel like this decision gave me added dramatic license and also allowed me to create a character I hope will live on in future stories.
OMN: How did you go about depicting Paris in the book?
CA: Like many, I fell in love with Paris over multiple visits, and wanted to stay as true as I could to the reality that I love — the character of the different neighborhoods, the amazing food, street culture, the language, and of course, the beauty of the architecture. I painstakingly used Google maps and my own photographs from previous trips to keep the geography real and include real locations in my novel. In fact, I ended up creating a map of the locations of the book on my website. If you're ever on your way to Paris, you might enjoy reading the book on the plane flight over, and you could get a preview for some of what you are about to see in person!
OMN: Have any authors influenced your writing?
CA: One of my biggest influences is the Canadian author Robertson Davies. His book, What's Bred in the Bone, deals thematically with art forgery. I also went to the same school he did in Canada, and was given a copy of his book in 7th grade, and fell in love with his writing, his voice, and with the fact the he was writing about my school (which he fictionalized as Colborne College). I even named my main character after him! I also took inspiration from him to choose the magic realist element of my story — that the Mona Lisa speaks directly to the audience during the novel.
OMN: What kind of movies do you enjoy watching? Did any of them provide inspiration for your book?
CA: There are relatively few art heist books, but many more art heist movies, which I have always loved. The most direct influences on this story were The Thomas Crown Affair, and a small Argentinian movie called Nine Queens, which is an excellent, twisting narrative about a heist and double-crosses.
Before I sat down to write, I also watched Topkapi, Entrapment, The Score, Rififi (also set in France), Asphalt Jungle, The Killing, Reservoir Dogs, The Bank Job, Le Cercle Rouge (after which I named Mathilde's art gallery) and Diva, all for inspiration! It was a fun project, and I highly recommend this list for fans of art heist stories in particular. As a writer, one of the key lessons from this research was structural — how heist stories had started to move the heist earlier and earlier in the plot, which became about the complications and human motivations afterwards. It was an important lesson and tied in with my own interest in what it would be like to harbor a missing painting for two years.
What follows is an excerpt from The Mona Lisa Speaks, Chapter 26.
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MONDAY NIGHT CAME SLOWLY. IT WAS another full day of work. Finally, as darkness came, I went out to grab a fortifying meal at an upscale brasserie called Le Fumoir I liked near the Louvre. The bar had a classic French feel with some modern upgrades. Old, leather wing-chairs, book-cases on the walls, but modern lighting, a modern steel and glass bar, and hip locals and tourists enjoying the scene. They had a great local jazz band in the evenings, which was fun for solo dining. The food was also quite good, and I had a light but healthy meal — an excellent Salade Niçoise, that I hoped would fuel me through the night ahead. The music helped keep my nerves down.
Then, I returned to the Louvre, saying hello to Jules, the night guard at the employee entrance, again and inquired, as I always did, about his family. My own security system logged my re-entry. This time, I was determined to keep better track of all the humans in the Louvre — which in the heist of the statue had proven to be my biggest risk and the most unpredictable part of the plan.
I arrived at my desk, turned on my computer monitors and got down to the night's work. This was it. There was no turning back now. First, I checked all the security monitors in the Louvre. Everything looked normal. I ended on the Salle des États. I zoomed the image, looking at the guard, sitting on his chair. He was slumped down, sleeping. On the floor next to him, was his usual mug of tea (with a covering, of course, to prevent spills since he wasn't supposed to have open beverages in the gallery). I smiled. Part one of this evening's plan had worked.
Earlier that afternoon, I had gone to make myself some tea in the basement break room, as I had started doing every afternoon since I had first begun to formulate my course of action. I had the break room to myself, as usual. I had carefully studied the tea drinking habits of the Mona Lisa's night guard (he religiously drank good old fashioned Earl Grey). That afternoon, I had opened the Earl Grey box, and quickly and carefully replaced the tea bags with ones I had prepared at home. I hoped that nobody else wanted Earl Grey that afternoon, or at least nobody who was about to drive a car or heavy machinery.
Steeling myself, I headed back down to the break room. This time, inside, I quickly returned the original Earl Grey tea bags to their rightful place, and pocketed the ones with the sleep medication, to be disposed of later in a safe place. I then made myself a cup of herbal tea — the last thing I needed now was caffeine, since I could feel that my adrenalin already had my heart rate elevated. I took a few soothing sips, but was careful not to overdo it — the other thing I didn't need now was an unplanned bathroom break.
I returned to my workstation, prepared the same rolling computer case I had taken out to Le Havre, and moved it carefully out to the elevators.
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A professional filmmaker, Christopher's most recent movie as a writer/director is This Is Not A Test, a satire about domestic terrorism that aired on Showtime. He was nominated for an Emmy for his work on James Cameron's documentary Expedition Bismarck and won a student Academy Award for his short film, Mr. October. Christopher received his BA from Yale University, where he was a Humanities major, and an MFA in film-making from the University of Southern California.
You can learn more about the author and his book at TheMonaLisaSpeaks.com. You can also find him on Twitter.
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The Mona Lisa Speaks
Christopher Angel
Brilliant and confident Robertson Ross, an outdoorsy Canadian computer expert hired to update the Louvre's security system, falls in love with Mathilde, a classic beauty and cultured Parisian art dealer. But, when he discovers that she's deeply in debt to Jacques Renard, a powerful and dangerous lord of the French criminal underground, he has to embark on the risky and thrilling theft of the Mona Lisa to save her — and their unborn child.
Rob's biggest problems actually begin after he successfully steals the Mona Lisa and replaces her with a perfect copy. Facing betrayals at all turns, he needs every bit of his intelligence, cunning, courage, and computer skills to stay alive & reunite with his true love.
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