The Sculptor
By Gregory Funaro

A ruthless serial killer known only as “the Sculptor” models his victims into Michelangelo’s famous sculptures

A serial killer calling himself the Sculptor, who reshapes his victims into replicas of works by Michelangelo, sends creepy messages to art historian Cathy Hildebrant. When it becomes clear that her book on Michelangelo's work is an inspiration for the murders, FBI special agent Sam Markham asks her help in figuring out when and where the killer will strike next, but the Sculptor easily evades their efforts and, with clumsy inevitability, traps Cathy and promises to make her his next victim… (Abridged description taken from Publisher’s Weekly)

MBTB review: I sooo was looking forward to this book for months and what a disappointment! I don’t know if I just wasn’t in the mood for it, or maybe they were rookie mistakes as this is Funaro’s first book. Either way, I’m hoping they get better because he does have some very creative ideas, they just didn’t come across the right way. He tries too hard to make this a thriller/mystery/romantic suspense/almost non-fiction piece that it kind of fell apart for all four categories. I love mysteries that have to do with art history, and I do appreciate background information regarding the pieces in question, but the “nonfiction” parts of this novel came across as very “textbookish” and quite frankly, uninteresting. The romance in the novel was almost comic and did not add anything to the storyline and the thrilling aspect of it was kind of slow going. The one thing I did appreciate are the parts of the story that were from the serial killer’s point of view. They always add to the story and give the reader a different perspective into the mind and motivations of the deranged killer.

There are better art thrillers/mysteries out there. Give Jonathan Santlofer a try—he is deliciously creepy and suspenseful and he includes some of this own artworks in the novel as well. A co-worker of mine has also suggested Nicholas Kilmer who I will be checking out in the near future.

I am going to give his second book “The Impaler” a try which acts as a prequel to “The Sculptor”. Hopefully I’ll enjoy it more.

Posted by Shiela