Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: The Empress of Tempera
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.alexdolan.com/
CITY:
STATE: CA
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/12685735.Alex_Dolan
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Male.
EDUCATION:Graduated from Columbia University.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and radio host. The End of the World festivals, founder; Litquake festival, executive committee member; has recorded four music albums; Authors on the Air Global Radio Network, host of “Thrill Seekers.”
MEMBER:International Thriller Writers, Sisters in Crime.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Alex Dolan is a writer and radio host. He hosts the “Thrill Seekers” show on the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network. He has also recorded several music albums and is the founder of the End of the World festivals.
In an interview with J.F. Penn for the latter’s Web site, Dolan discussed his joy in writing. He shared: “Part of why I like to write is because I like to read. And I’ll read anyone. Tom Robbins’ Jitterbug Perfume remains one of my favorite books because of the imagination he poured into it. My literary crush is Joyce Carol Oates. Michael Faber intrigues me these days because he seems to tackle a different genre with every new title, and he nails it—sort of like a literary Ang Lee. So, I try to read as much as possible, and every time I read a fresh voice, it inspires me to keep writing.”
The Euthanist
Dolan published his first novel, The Euthanist, in 2015. Kali helps those with terminal illnesses end their lives in a humane and respectable manner. When she is hired to end the life of the wrong person, though, she turns her mistake into feelings of vengeance against those who set her up.
Writing in the Voice of Youth Advocates, Katherine Noone pointed out that “assisted suicide can provide novelists with character-enriching choices.” Noone found that in Dolan’s novel, “despite the violence, the backstories and subplots merge neatly,” adding that “the book is hard to put down.” A contributor to the Fictionophile blog commented that The Euthanist “is a fast-paced debut thriller which is sure to be enjoyed by many–though for some reason the novel left me less than overly impressed.” The contributor added that the book had “an excellent premise that somehow didn’t deliver.”
The Empress of Tempera
In 2016 Dolan published the novel The Empress of Tempera. Paire Anjou longs to be an acclaimed artist. On the way to her boyfriend’s exhibit, she sees an elderly man cry while looking at dissident Chinese artist Qi’s painting of an empress. When Paige approaches him, he immediately stabs himself in the chest. The painting is said to enhance feelings of rage, panic, lust, and greed. As she looks more into the background of the artist, she learns of a tale of vengeance that dates back centuries. Paige soon finds herself drawn into the painting’s intrigue, agreeing to help in its theft.
A contributor to Publishers Weekly said that “Dolan probes the value and meaning of art while spinning the troubled backstories of Paire and Qi.” A contributor to the Ultraviolent Lit blog shared: “I wouldn’t call this a thriller, but it is certainly action-packed, and it kept me reading despite the flawed characters.” The same reviewer admitted that “while it started out slow, it quickly got more interesting, and I’m glad I stuck with it until the shocking end.” A Live and Deadly online reviewer observed that “Dolan weaves his story with the art of a fine tapestry maker. Nothing is quite what it seems and no-one’s motives are as pure as they appear at first glance. There are many twists and revelations as Paire’s obsession with the painting leads to death and destruction.” The critic found that “ultimately, though, this is a story about what values we live by and whether we live up to them.”
Writing in ReviewingTheEvidence.com, Christine Zibas opined: “It seems that Alex Dolan doesn’t really know what he wants to say with his story. Or he’s got too many ideas, none of which are fleshed out enough to make a book of their own.” A contributor to the AuntieMWrites Web site claimed that the author has “concocted an unusual thriller with unexpected twists and turns in the story that will attract readers as it exposes them to a world that many won’t have known existed in several planes.” A contributor writing in the Navi Review remarked that the novel “was slow and arduous for the most part.” The critic mentioned that “the characters were borderline flat, though I could tell that they weren’t intended to be so. They had motivations, but I didn’t always buy them, and even when I did, they weren’t as affecting, dramatic or climactic as they were meant to be by a long shot.” The Navi Review contributor found that “the passively omniscient narrator’s voice sounded unmistakably amateur, guessing as to why the characters’ motives were what they were.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, July 18, 2016, review of The Empress of Tempera, p. 190.
San Jose Mercury News, June 24, 2015, Lou Fancher, “Author Alex Dolan Builds a Thriller around the Topic of Mercy Killing in His First Novel.”
Voice of Youth Advocates, June 1, 2015, Katherine Noone, review of The Euthanist, p. 58.
ONLINE
Alex Dolan Home Page, https://www.alexdolan.com (May 8, 2017).
AuntieMWrites, https://auntiemwrites.com/ (September 13, 2016), review of The Empress of Tempera.
Big Thrill, http://www.thebigthrill.org/ (November 9, 2015), review of The Euthanist.
Fictionophile, https://fictionophile.wordpress.com/ (August 4, 2015), review of The Euthanist.
J.F. Penn Web site, http://jfpenn.com/ (May 8, 2017), author interview.
Live and Deadly, https://kindledelight.wordpress.com/ (September 11, 2016), review of The Empress of Tempera.
Navi Review, https://thenavireview.com/ (September 8, 2016), review of The Empress of Tempera.
ReviewingTheEvidence.com, http://www.reviewingtheevidence.com/ (July 1, 2016), Christine Zibas, review of The Empress of Tempera.
Ultraviolent Lit, http://ultraviolentlit.blogspot.com/ (October 18, 2016), review of The Empress of Tempera.
Alex Dolan is the author of The Euthanist and The Empress of Tempera. He also hosts the show "Thrill Seekers," part of the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network. He was an executive committee member of the San Francisco Bay Area’s Litquake festival, and is a member of International Thriller Writers and Sisters in Crime. He has recorded four music albums, and created "The End of the World" festivals, which combined philanthropy with the arts.
In addition, he specializes in pro-social communications, using marketing techniques to drive progress on social issues and with mission-driven organizations. He has worked with companies including global energy innovator Energy Recovery; Columbia University's international HIV program ICAP; The Synergos Institute, a global anti-poverty group run by the Rockefeller family; Current TV, the national television network co-founded by Al Gore; and WGBH-TV, the production house for PBS in Boston. He holds a master's degree in strategic communications from Columbia University.
The Euthanist by Alex Dolan
NOVEMBER 9, 2015 by ITW
In this auspicious debut, Alex Dolan announces himself as a virtuoso of psychological suspense and a rightful heir to masters of the genre like Gillian Flynn and Megan Abbott.
A young woman helps to end the lives of people with terminal diseases, her reasons her own. When she helps the wrong person, she will be roped into a plot to gain vengeance on behalf of dozens. Her journey will make her question everything she ever thought she knew about herself. And the last life she ends may be her own.
They know her as Kali. She is there to see them off into the afterlife with kindness, with efficiency, and with two needles. She’s been a part of the right-to-die movement for years, an integral member, complicit in the deaths of 27 men and women, all suffering from terminal illnesses. And she just helped the wrong patient.
Leland Moon has been with the bureau for his entire career, but even as a respected agent, he was unable to keep his own son from being kidnapped on his way to school. When his boy finally came home, he told terrifying stories of his captors, and his nightmares haven’t stopped since. Moon draws Kali into his mission, a mesmerizing cat-and-mouse game with two ruthless predators – one behind bars, one free – who hold the secrets that could bring comfort to the families of their victims. This powerful journey toward grace and toward peace will force both Leland and Kali to question everything they believe to be true and just.
THE EUTHANIST is available from Amazon.
*****
“[An] action-packed story…arriving with eerily uncanny timing, Alex Dolan’s debut novel, “The Euthanist” tackles the prickly topic of death with dignity.” —San Jose Mercury News
“Alex Dolan makes an engrossing debut with THE EUTHANIST. He writes a riveting and imaginative narrative as he deftly enhances a currently relevant plot with vivid characterization. Dolan hooks readers from the very start, ratcheting up the tension and suspense until the shocking ending. As a thriller writer, Alex Dolan is set to be one of the best.” —Fresh Fiction
“In one of the most promising debuts since Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects and Alice Blanchard’s Darkness Peering, The Euthanist strikes like a suckerpunch and never lets up. Seriously, this book is freakin’ relentless.” —Transgress Magazine/Ensuing Chapters
“Alex Dolan’s THE EUTHANIST grabbed me from the first page and showed no signs of letting go. Dark and sinewy, topical and timeless, laced with rich characterization and gallows humor, it showcases Dolan as a thriller writer to watch and follow.” —Louis Bayard, author of Roosevelt’s Beast, The Pale Blue Eye and Mr. Timothy
“Fast, fierce, complex and compassionate, THE EUTHANIST is an extraordinary performance from a writer full of both fire and heart.” —Scott O’Connor, author of Half World and Untouchable
“THE EUTHANIST grabs and doesn’t let go. But it’s much more than a brilliant debut thriller. Dolan’s mile-a-minute story also gets at one of our species most important issues—can we choose how to die? Forget that I couldn’t put it down; I couldn’t stop thinking about it after I did.” —Dylan Schaffer, author of Misdemeanor Man
“The biggest page turner of the year.” —LizLovesBooks
“Alex Dolan has written a superb first novel, meeting head-on two of the twin problems of present-day society…the reader is reduced to just having to read another chapter…….and another……. and the plot just keeps on getting thicker and thicker.” —Bestselling Crime Thrillers
“Reading Alex Dolan’s THE EUTHANIST is like cutting open a pearl; you negotiate through well crafted layers to get to the dirty little secret that put it all in motion.” —Robert Pobi, author of Bloodman and American Woman
“The heroine of Alex Dolan’s THE EUTHANIST is a sharp-tongued, take-no-prisoners kind of gal who had me gripped from page one. Dolan writes dialogue that’s snappy and darkly witty. Imaginative and riveting, The Euthanist is a one-of-kind novel that will leave readers staying up late and longing for more.” —Renee Swindle, author of A Pinch of Ooh La La
“Daring and original, Alex Dolan’s evocative prose takes you on a wild ride with an unforgettable (and literal) femme fatal. A lethal mix of beauty, physical prowess, compassion and a touch of freakiness, the character Kali stays with you long after you finish this compelling debut novel.” —Crash Barry, author of Marijuana Valley and Sex, Drugs and Blueberries
“In THE EUTHANIST Alex Dolan gives readers a tension-filled roller-coaster of a story with a compelling, complicated and feisty female lead. It’s a stylishly written tale that grabs you quick and keeps you reading. Rich, socially relevant and entertaining, it’s a vivid page-turner.” —Elaine Beale, author of Another Life Altogether
*****
Alex Dolan is a writer and musician based in California. His first book, THE EUTHANIST, is published through Diversion Books and represented by the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency. His second book, THE EMPRESS OF TEMPERA, will also be published by Diversion Books.
In addition, Alex hosts the show “Thrill Seekers,” as part of the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network, where he interviews established and emerging thriller authors. He is an executive committee member of the San Francisco Bay Area’s Litquake festival, and a member of the International Thriller Writers and Sisters in Crime. He has recorded four music albums, and has a master’s degree in strategic communications from Columbia University.
Author Alex Dolan builds a thriller around the topic of mercy killing in his first novel, ‘The Euthanist’
By LOU FANCHER, CORRESPONDENT |
June 24, 2015 at 5:52 am
Arriving with eerily uncanny timing, Alex Dolan’s debut novel, “The Euthanist” (Diversion Books, $16.99 softcover, 315 pages), tackles the prickly topic of death with dignity.
The 43-year-old San Leandro writer’s thriller about a right-to-die activist helping terminally ill people choose the timing and circumstances of their deaths plays against a real-life backdrop. The state Senate earlier this month passed the controversial End of Life Option Act, known as SB 128, which allows adults with terminal illness to request and receive life-ending medications from a physician. If the measure is passed by the Assembly and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, California will join five other states with physician-assisted suicide: Washington, Vermont, Montana, New Mexico and Oregon.
“I wrote about it because it’s worth debating the subject,” Dolan says. “We’re all going to get to that point. Societally, we’re at the intersection of death-with-dignity and lethal injections. It’s unresolved: How do we execute inmates? What should the end of life look like?”
“Euthanist” introduces a tough female firefighter, Kali, and FBI agent Leland Moon. Each character has reason to take part in the death-with-dignity movement. Their motivations — compassion, vengeance and more — provide a subtext for the action-packed story.
Growing up in Boston with parents who were painters — his father was a designer at Houghton Mifflin — Dolan was surrounded by books. “I remember the giant warehouse sales. We’d dig in cardboard boxes filled with Peterson Field Guides, ‘The Hobbit,’ all genres of books.”
Ian Fleming’s gadgetry-filled James Bond spy novels were early favorites, as were tales of mythological “ubermen” such as Theseus.
“There were fun villains, and the sexuality of Bond just flew over my head,” Dolan says about Fleming’s books. “Theseus was fighting people, not monsters. He had to outwit them, not just overpower them.”
Attracted from an early age to the power of “people solving problems with their brains” and intimidated by his parents’ skill as visual artists, Dolan forged a separate sense of self.
“When I was 5 years old, I had it in my head I wanted to solve the national deficit. I had no idea what a trillion dollars was, but I went door-to-door to raise funds. “People were tickled. I think I raised 12 bucks. My parents said it was cute, but they made me give the money back.”
Eventually, armed with a master’s degree in strategic communications from Columbia University, Dolan began a marketing career; wrote and recorded a half-dozen CDs (“I call it rock you can dance to,” he says, of the cross-genre recordings), and established a writing regimen.
He keeps a notebook by his bed, saying that ideas “popcorn” into his head when he’s relaxed or dreaming. When a premise resonates, he spends months developing characters, answering questions such as, “What terrifies them?” “What do they not like about themselves?”
Dolan, like his fictional Kali, counts spiders as a top fear and confesses to having walked out on “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” As a writer, his greatest fear is rejection letters.
“I’ve probably had thousands of them from when I started writing books in my 20s,” he says.
After the unexpected death of his father five years ago, end-of-life issues bubbled up as primary. “It was a bacterial infection that shut down his lungs. Random. Out of the blue. We had a living will that clarified things, but it’s hard to know when someone wants to end their life,” he says.
Working in the bookshelf-lined studio that resembles a 19th-century library in his 1927 Tudor-style home — or in the filtered light of a rose-covered pergola in his backyard garden — Dolan spent four months writing an outline in 2012. Conducting research and interviews, he had a final draft by December 2013 and an agent by the following Valentine’s Day. Diversion made an offer in August, and after light edits, the final draft was complete in January.
“It’s really exciting to have people in your camp,” he says. “A book deal is a complete rush. It’s a huge step for me but a small step in carving out a career as a professional novelist.” Continuing his day job as an executive with San Leandro-based Energy Recovery, Dolan says he will keep working with an agent while completing his next book.
“I worked at a literary agency early on and saw that people sometimes pushed a book out too soon. Writing is collaborative. You need other people to make you better.”
Book two is a thriller set in the art world. A painting by an artist whose body of work has been expunged appears and causes a generational feud between two families. Expect fireworks — and people solving problems with their brains as much as with their brawn.
The Context Of Death. Interview With Alex Dolan, Author Of The Euthanist
Some book titles are designed to appeal to certain types of people.
I saw The Euthanist by Alex Dolan and bought it immediately! It’s definitely my type of book, and in this interview, I ask author Alex Dolan about some of the controversial topics that underlie the story.
Tell us how you got into writing.
My father worked for Houghton Mifflin, so I grew up around books and I’ve written since I was young. My dad typeset and bound my first story when I was six. It was called The Jewel, and essentially an Indiana Jones rip-off.
Part of why I like to write is because I like to read. And I’ll read anyone. Tom Robbins’ Jitterbug Perfume remains one of my favorite books because of the imagination he poured into it. My literary crush is Joyce Carol Oates. Michael Faber intrigues me these days because he seems to tackle a different genre with every new title, and he nails it—sort of like a literary Ang Lee.
So, I try to read as much as possible, and every time I read a fresh voice, it inspires me to keep writing, to see if I can add something to the conversation.
Why did you decide to tackle the topic head-on by titling the book The Euthanist?
I’d always had an academic interest in the death with dignity movement, but when my father passed away a few years ago, I started to seriously consider end-of-life decisions, and how much power we all have over those decisions. That’s what made me dig a little deeper into the subject.
Once I started researching it, I was fascinated, and the story evolved from there. I knew going into it that I was writing about delicate subject matter, and I thought it made sense to be clear from the title what the book would be about. Either this is going to interest someone or not, and I wanted a title that let readers know what they were getting themselves into.
dignity in dyingI support the charity Dignity in Dying and I campaign for the right of terminally ill but mentally sound patients to choose their own means of death, in their own homes, with their loved ones. I believe sick and dying animals are treated better than sick and dying humans – so I am your target audience!
[For a powerful argument on this topic, check out fantasy author Terry Pratchett’s book, Shaking Hands with Death. Terry died of early onset Alzheimer’s in March 2015 and was a passionate campaigner for the right to choose his own death.]
How do your own opinions and feelings on euthanasia come out in the book?
I think people should have more choice in end-of-life decisions.
That being said, I don’t preach either side of the argument in the book. It can be a divisive issue, and I try to respect others’ opinions. We’re at an interesting time in this country, where 27 states are currently debating death with dignity legislation, and yet the media seems to avoid covering the issue. I think we should have a very public discussion about it, and my hope is that the book might help ignite that discussion.
My readers love strong female characters and Kali is definitely strong. What parts of you are in her character?
Thank you! There’s not much of me in Kali. She’s largely based on a collection of people I interviewed, which included paramedics, EMTs and firefighters, as well as some personal friends who shared similar characteristics. I wanted to create someone physically formidable, strong-willed and courageous, and my research fed into a composite that became Kali.
How did your research for the book and what kinds of reaction did you get along the way?
Whenever I can, I try to interview people face to face, or at least by telephone. There’s so much I can draw out of a real person that I can’t get from a secondary source. Given how sensitive this material is, I forced myself to limit these kinds of interviews. As I mentioned, I interviewed a number of paramedics, EMTs and firefighters, but I avoided speaking with anyone directly involved in the death with dignity movement, because I didn’t want anyone to feel like they were getting themselves into legal jeopardy by talking to me.
euthanistAlso, I didn’t want anyone who was considering their own end-of-life decisions to feel like I was exploiting their illnesses for the sake of the book. So where it felt inappropriate to talk to people in person, I relied on secondary sources.
One of themes of the book for me was a consideration about what murder really is and who is a murderer.
Can we define murder based on who is killed and what the motive is? How did you consider and explore that theme in the book?
It’s a good question, and one that I asked myself quite a bit while I was writing this. I leave it an unresolved question in the book, because it’s such a gray area.
One of the aspects of death with dignity that compelled me was that the drugs used in mercy killing are often the same drugs used in capital punishment, which means two people can be killed in the same way and have it considered both compassionate and punitive, depending on the scenario.
The context of death is important.
But the definition of murder can also come down to personal values and biases. If you kill someone in self-defense, you can still think of yourself as a murderer depending on your own morality.
When I was researching the book, a few of the paramedics repeated a saying, “No one dies in an ambulance,” which stems from a law that you need an MD to call a time of death. So there’s some gray area around the difference between biological death and legal death. And if it’s that hard to come up with a tight definition of death, it’s that much harder to come up with a universal definition of murder.
What’s next for you?
The next book is another literary thriller set in the art world, where a mysterious painting surfaces and sparks a blood feud between a rich and poor family. It was inspired by the real world relationship between a German painter named Rudolph Bauer and his primary benefactor, Solomon Guggenheim.
The Empress of Tempera
263.29 (July 18, 2016): p190.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
The Empress of Tempera
Alex Dolan. Diversion, $14.99 trade paper (282p) ISBN 978-1-68230-297-2
Dolan's intriguing sophomore effort (after The Euthanist) centers on a singular painting--The Empress Xiao Zhe Yi, Seated, produced by Chinese artist Qi Jianyu in 1980--and the extraordinary effect it has on viewers. One such viewer is Paire Anjou, a student at the Manhattan School of Art and Design, who was born Katie Novis, "a mousy girl from a family of criminals" in Maine. One day, as Paire is walking toward the Fern Gallery, where her guerilla-artist lover, Derek Rosewood, has an opening, she spots an old man standing in front of the gallery window, where The Empress is on display. Shortly after Paire picks up the glasses that the man has dropped, he fatally stabs himself. Paire becomes obsessed with the painting, the artist, and the wealthy and obnoxious Abel Kasson, who wants to possess the painting. Dolan probes the value and meaning of art while spinning the troubled backstories of Paire and Qi. Paire and Derek's decision to steal The Empress sets the stage for a cataclysmic finale. (Sept.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Empress of Tempera." Publishers Weekly, 18 July 2016, p. 190. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA459287523&it=r&asid=17fab744a379e413a3a883c6366e9a3b. Accessed 7 May 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A459287523
Dolan, Alex. The Euthanist
Katherine Noone
38.2 (June 2015): p58.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
http://www.voya.com
4Q * 4P * A/YA Dolan, Alex. The Euthanist. Diversion Books, 2015. 274p. $16.99. 978-1-62681549-0.
Assisted suicide can provide novelists with character-enriching choices and conflicts (see Gayle Forman's I Was Here [Penguin, 2015/VOYA, December 2014]). Euthanasia, however, seems more a convenient plot point for The Euthanist. The childhood traumas that have led Kali, a California firefighter/ paramedic, to arrange her twenty-eighth "terminus" in the past five years have also led her to action-hero muscles and frequent fist fights. Spewing curses, her character often seems designed as a siren call to some blockbuster movie producer. Kali is not, at first, a sympathetic character. She unexpectedly has to battle her latest client, Leland, an FBI agent in disguise, who surprises her by handcuffing her as she prepares to inject him. The battle is fierce. Victorious, he trades her freedom for her services with Helena, a dying woman who Leland pretends is his sister. When Kali learns the woman's real identity, Leland offers her a second trade. Far more empathy enters her choice to cooperate this time, administering truth serum to Helena's partner, a prisoner who thinks he is being euthanized as he requested. As a result, the remains of eighteen kidnapped children are finally located. A vicious, although anticlimactic, fight scene follows, featuring guns, knives, forks, and fists, leaving all wounded and Helena finally dead.
As a rogue FBI agent acting for understandable personal reasons, Leland both objects to and needs Kali's euthanasia skill, providing some exploration of its pros and cons. Despite the violence, the backstories and subplots merge neatly; the book is hard to put down.--Katherine Noone.
Noone, Katherine
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Noone, Katherine. "Dolan, Alex. The Euthanist." Voice of Youth Advocates, June 2015, p. 58. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA418844923&it=r&asid=9af5975c131aa648abe8537b735bfdc8. Accessed 7 May 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A418844923
“The Euthanist” by Alex Dolan
Posted on August 4, 2015
As debut novels go, “The Euthanist” was a bit surprising. The cover was chilling and effective. The divergent plot and protagonist were not what I expected at all.
Our protagonist is Pamela/Kali, a practitioner of euthanasia and assisted suicide who has a day job as a California firefighter/paramedic. A physically strong and motivated young woman of twenty-six years of age.
When one of her ‘clients’ turns out to be deceiving her about the severity of his illness her life takes a turn for the bizarre.
Her client Leland Moon is actually a healthy FBI agent. Rather than arrest her as a result of this entrapment, he uses his knowledge of her illegal extracurricular activities to coerce her into taking part in a plot to wreck vengeance against the pedophiles who abducted his son. He believes that this will bring some solace to the families of the pedophiles’ many victims.
One of the pedophiles, Walter Mumm, is in prison, the other, his sister Helena Mumm, is terminally ill. After Kali learns of the horrific experiences of the children at the hands of the Mumms, she comes on board with Leland. However, in the quest for revenge, Leland and Kali begin to question their personal beliefs of what’s right and wrong. The ending was quite compelling and makes the reader question their opinions on euthanasia.
What bothered me more than a little was Pamela/Kali’s weak motivation for becoming a euthanist in the first place. More importantly, I found that I didn’t really connect with her character – which is a deal-breaker for me. I really wanted to bond with her and although she was in sympathetic situations I remained unsympathetic towards her. At odds with what I felt I should feel about him, I found Leland Moon’s character to be unlikeable and manipulative. Also, I found several editing errors which I found distracting as a reader.
“The Euthanist” is a fast-paced debut thriller which is sure to be enjoyed by many – though for some reason the novel left me less than overly impressed. An excellent premise that somehow didn’t deliver. Overall “The Euthanist” didn’t live up to the hype, and I will be unlikely to read another novel by this author.
October 18, 2016
The Empress of Tempera - Alex Dolan
Diversion Publishing, September 13, 2016.
Three Stars
As this novel begins, Katie Novis has just renounced her former identity and is now Paire Anjou. It is a ridiculous name, but perfectly suits her new persona and her ambition to become an artist in New York City. She has left behind her unhappy past and her dysfunctional, criminal parents to pursue a future with her up and coming artist boyfriend, Derek Rosewood.
On her way to Derek’s showing at the Fern Gallery, Paire stops outside to admire a striking painting of an empress dressed in red, staring defiantly out at the viewer. Beside her is a man who is staring at the empress and sobbing – before Paire has a chance to react, he pulls out a letter opener and stabs himself in the chest. This is her first introduction to the painting that will change her life.
The painting is the last known work of a Chinese dissident artist named Qi. When Paire is offered a job at the Fern Gallery, she witnesses the vast crowds of people who swarm to the gallery to see the painting that inspired the suicide – and Paire becomes obsessed with the painting as well. Meanwhile, her life veers towards her family’s criminal past as Derek introduces her to his world of illegal, Banksy-style public art installations. As their crimes escalate, Paire and Derek plan an ambitious heist of the empress painting, but their harmless prank goes terribly wrong.
When the painting disappears completely, Paire is led down a dangerous path into the backstory of Qi, his family, and his artistic career. Her journey leads to bribery, death threats and eventually a gruesome murder. Although it takes a while for the story to coalesce, it eventually becomes more complex than I expected. In the first half, the characters are one-dimensional, but they gradually become more real and interesting. Paire is somewhat sympathetic, but often frustrating and unlikeable – there was a lot of angst about her past that should have been explained early on instead of being dragged out throughout the novel.
You definitely don’t need to be an art expert to enjoy this novel, although a rudimentary understanding of the art world may help you get more out of it, especially the technical details and historical aspects. I wouldn’t call this a thriller, but it is certainly action-packed, and it kept me reading despite the flawed characters. While it started out slow, it quickly got more interesting and I’m glad I stuck with it until the shocking end.
I received this novel from Diversion Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The Empress of Tempera by Alex Dolan
September 11, 2016
Good art can make a person cry; great art can make a person kill.
Paire Anjou came to New York to be an artist, but thus far has only achieved an artist boyfriend—the enfant terrible of the art world, Derek Rosewood. On her way to his show, where his controversial paintings will be on display, Paire sees an older man on the sidewalk, looking into the window of the Fern Gallery, gazing intently at a painting, and sobbing. As Paire approaches him, the man stabs himself in the chest.
The painting that inspired the suicide is a one-off for the gallery—the last-known surviving work of a dissident Chinese artist named Qi. An empress, dressed in red, sits imperiously and stares out at the viewer. Paire is but one of the people who stare back, joined by hundreds, from around the world, flocking to the Fern Gallery to observe and obsess over the Empress. The Empress inspires lust and panic, rage and greed. When Paire starts digging into the backstory of the painting, and its artist, she unravels a tale of profound betrayal and a vengeance that spans generations.
She also sets in motion the painting’s final heist, a swirling morass of bribery, theft, and murder, drawing Paire deeper and deeper into the underside of the art world, where the greatest works inspire the most vicious of crimes.
Having read and enjoyed The Euthanist, I was looking forward to reading Alex Dolan’s new novel.
The Empress is a painting that captivates and almost entrances those who see it. Paire Anjou is a young woman with a dark past that she is desperate to leave behind, but which haunts her every day. She is in the process of transforming herself from her birth name, Kate Novis, to the more exotic and artistic Paire Anjou, when the book opens.
As she leaves the court with her legal name change secured, she is walking to the Fern Gallery where her boyfriend, Derek Rosewood, has an exhibition of his art due to open.
As she walks up to the gallery, she sees an older man staring at the window, transfixed, where a painting of The Empress, a young Chinese woman, is on display. He drops a pair of glasses and then suddenly takes a knife from his pocket and stabs himself in the heart in front of the painting.
Shocked by the event, and covered in the man’s blood, Paire goes into the gallery and thus begins the start of an obsession with the painting that will take root and alter the course of not just her life, but many others besides.
This is not just a story about the transformative power of art; it goes deeper into what it is that we value and why we do so.
Paire herself tries to stand back from the painting, but as she starts work at the gallery she finds herself drawn in more and more to the artwork, which seeps into her consciousness whether she is awake or asleep.
She becomes obsessed with the painting, and as she learns more about the artist, a dissident painter named Qi, whose other works apparently have been lost for ever, she is unwittingly drawn into a feud that goes back more than four decades when a wealthy American signed a contract with the artist in China and gained the rights to all his paintings. Qi’s The Empress is the last surviving painting and it has an astonishing effect on many who see it.
Dolan weaves his story with the art of a fine tapestry maker. Nothing is quite what it seems and no-one’s motives are as pure as they appear at first glance. There are many twists and revelations as Paire’s obsession with the painting leads to death and destruction.
The Empress of Tempera is a complex story of love, deceit, cruelty and avarice. Ultimately though, this is a story about what values we live by and whether we live up to them.
Well written and thought provoking, this is a book well worth reading.
The Empress of Tempera is published by Diversion Books on 13 Sept. 2016
My thanks to the publisher for an advance copy – this has not influenced my review.
THE EMPRESS OF TEMPERA
by Alex Dolan
Diversion Books, September 2016
282 pages
$14.99
ISBN: 1682302970
Buy from Amazon.com
Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada
While there are many elements in this mystery that can create an interesting novel–including an intriguing painting (and the political suppression of its Chinese painter), a woman seeking to change her life, the artwork's hidden ownership, underground art, the drive of private collectors, and others–these elements never quite seem to gel. It's hard to really care about any of the main characters. Even the most sympathetic figure in the novel, a radical young American artist modeled on Banksy, disappoints in the end.
Then there's the convoluted plot. Is it about the life of Paire Anjou (a name the young woman who bears it chose for herself), a young art student who goes to work in the gallery where the painting is held? Is it about the artist Qi and his daughter? Is it about the drive to own art, as exemplified by the villainous Kasson family? Is it about Anjou's need to reinvent herself and her reasons for it? Is it about Anjou's boyfriend, the self-styled rebel artist who's beholden to darker forces?
All of these threads are included, but they never quite hold together or maintain interest over the course of the novel. While the book starts out interestingly enough with Anjou's need to reinvent herself, this mystery dragged out until the end and never really connected to the plotline of the painting itself. Indeed, throughout the course of the storytelling, the book seems to meander in one direction, then another, with none of the plot twists being particularly connected to one another, nor driving the story to its conclusion.
It seems that Alex Dolan doesn't really know what he wants to say with his story. Or he's got too many ideas, none of which are fleshed out enough to make a book of their own. There are endless plots and subplots, but with such unsympathetic characters, it is difficult to end up not really caring what happens to these unlikable folks or how the story will end.
This book could have been so much more. While comparisons are being made to books such as THE ART FORGER by Barbara Shapiro, this novel never even comes close to that quality of writing and plot.
§ Christine Zibas is a freelance writer and former director of publications for a Chicago nonprofit.
Reviewed by Christine Zibas, July 2016
Alex Dolan: The Empress of Tempera Tuesday, Sep 13 2016
Uncategorized art exhibit death, art feud thriller, art world thriller, NYC gallery mystery auntiemwrites 12:03 am
empresstempera
The protagonist of Alex Dolan’s thriller The Empress of Tempera is a young art student studying in New York, renaming herself and reinventing herself from the criminal Maine family she left behind, currently involved in a relationship with artist Derek Rosewood, whose exhibit is being hung at The Fern Gallery.
Paire Anjou heads there to meet up with Derek Rosewood, and as she approaches, she’s struck by the elderly gentleman staring at the painting hanging in the window. As she gets closer, the man moans, and suddenly stabs himself in the heart, dropping to the ground at her feet. Despite Paire’s efforts to resuscitate him, the man dies and she finds herself covered in his blood. It’s only then she finds her eyes drawn to the display window and the painting that mesmerized this man.
The Empress is an almost life-size portrait of a woman in a bright red embroidered Asian dress, sitting in a provocative pose, and she engenders powerful emotions in people who view her. Gallery visitors faint; some write her love letters; others try to steal her.
This is Paire’s introduction to the power art can exert, and in researching the painting, she finds it by a Chinese artist known as Qi, whose body of work has vanished. Qi had lived in the US and returned to China at some point and has died.
Paire also finds one of the wealthiest families in New York has wanted to possess the Empress, and a forty-year feud between them and Qi had been waged. And it’s still going on.
It’s an eye opener for Paire, who starts to work at the Fern Gallery and is exposed to the controversy. Meanwhile, her relationship with Rosewood leads her to escapes that speak to her genetic makeup, with unexpected results.
Dolan, the son of two artists, immerses the reader in the world of art and its effects on people’s natures as well as our culture. He’s also concocted an unusual thriller with unexpected twists and turns in the story that will attract readers as it exposes them to a world that many won’t have known existed in several planes.
The Empress of Tempera by Alex Dolan
ON SEPTEMBER 8, 2016 BY THE NAVI REVIEWIN CONTEMPORARY FICTION, NETGALLEY, PUBLISHED 2016
I received an advance-read copy of this book from the publisher, Diversion Publishing, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Paperback, 282 pages
Expected publication: September 13th 2016 by Diversion Publishing
The Empress of Tempera is the tale of Paire Anjou, a 20-year-old Maine native running from her past turned art student in New York City. Two years after fleeing her traumatic upbringing, she has successfully reinvented herself and bagged a famous artist boyfriend, has landed a job at an art gallery and become obsessed with the gallery’s main attraction, a vivid painting by a Chinese artist whose flash of fame was all too brief and mysterious. In finding herself and understanding her obsession with The Empress, Paire becomes entangled in dangerous artistic heists and embroiled in uncovering the story of an artist shrouded in as much shadowy family history as Paire herself.
All in all, The Empress reminded me of The Last Painting of Sara de Vos more than I’d hoped to admit (I’ve also reviewed that novel here), the first half of the read at least. While I’m sure that some will call this unfair, to be honest, there was the same young woman running from her past, a painting that captivated her, a link between two distinctly different time periods and cultures. There were art galleries and soliloquys on brush stroke techniques and how the painting in question, the novel’s namesake, stood apart from others of its time period. Add to that a dash of danger, a few scenes of violence and a 20th century Chinese artist (rather than 17th century Dutch) and you’ve got yourself an Empress of Tempera.
But, sigh sigh sigh, the main thread that definitively connected these two reads in my mind was that Alex Dolan’s Empress also offered the same vaguely clinical tone narrating it all, like a nasally, monotone fly buzzing in my ear throughout. The characters were borderline flat, though I could tell that they weren’t intended to be so. They had motivations, but I didn’t always buy them, and even when I did, they weren’t as affecting, dramatic or climactic as they were meant to be by a long shot. Even the effect that the painting, The Empress Xiao Zhe Yi, Seated, had on its viewers, the very foundation for this novel, seemed manufactured, inauthentic.
It didn’t seem feasible that someone would stab themselves over that painting (view spoiler). Fainting at the painting’s feet. Swooning at the sight of it. Why? Is it foretelling the coming of Christ? Is it depicting a cultural phenomenon; has it become a Mecca-like beacon for radical jihadists? SOMETHING? No, it was just a portrait of a beautiful woman, seated. That’s it; that’s all. Show’s over folks. Nothing to see here. Nothing. It was just there. And I, in turn, was just bored.
The passively omniscient narrator’s voice sounded unmistakably amateur, guessing as to why the characters’ motives were what they were. “Paire suspected Kasson had chosen this time because he knew Mayer wouldn’t be there.” Every other page it was, “She suspected this.” “She probably did it because of this.” As a reader, I felt cheated of learning what made the characters tick, a novice mistake in a writer’s hand, if you ask me. “At this point Kasson must have understood that she was not going to help him.” Smh and the soul of writing slowly dies.
Dolan’s Empress was slow and arduous for the most part. And not particularly in a poignant, character-peeling sort of way either. There were a few times that I skimmed and several times that I considered putting her down. But, like a true reader, I just had to press on, to see if a turn would re-ignite my fire. You know, I just had to go into the haunted house, even though my subconscious was telling me not to. But it didn’t work out the way I’d hoped. (Does that ever?)
I won’t even delve into how the artistic heists were all borderline pointless, definitely juvenile and founded on motives shaky at best. I won’t harp on how you could run a freight train through the plausibility of them. Five days to plan and execute a heist, really? You want me to believe that? I mean, I guess. And, yawn, the damaging family history that was the thread of mystery holding the story together ended up not being worth the hype. That was all? That was nothing! I myself know people who have been through worse than that!
So, with that in mind, I started to give The Empress 3 stars, to say that it was average. But it’s only fair that I stick to my grading scale, isn’t it? And this one didn’t quite make it into the “Liked” pile. Instead, I’ll give it a “Meh” and a half. 2.5 stars. **