A Beautiful Crime, Christopher Bollen
A Beautiful Crime, Christopher Bollen
2 Rating(s)
List: $26.99 | Sale: $18.89
Club: $13.49

A Beautiful Crime
A Novel

Author: Christopher Bollen

Narrator: Tim Paige

Unabridged: 11 hr 8 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 01/28/2020

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist | O Magazine Best Book of the Year“A compelling take on the eternal question of how good people morph into criminals. Terrific.”—People, Book of the WeekFrom the author of The Destroyers comes an ""intricately plotted and elegantly structured"" (Newsday) story of intrigue and deception, set in contemporary Venice and featuring a young American couple who have set their sights on a risky con.When Nick Brink and his boyfriend Clay Guillory meet up on the Grand Canal in Venice, they have a plan in mind—and it doesn’t involve a vacation. Nick and Clay are running away from their turbulent lives in New York City, each desperate for a happier, freer future someplace else. Their method of escape? Selling a collection of counterfeit antiques to a brash, unsuspecting American living out his retirement years in a grand palazzo. With Clay’s smarts and Nick’s charm, their scheme is sure to succeed.As it turns out, tricking a millionaire out of money isn’t as easy as it seems, especially when Clay and Nick let greed get the best of them. As Nick falls under the spell of the city’s decrepit magic, Clay comes to terms with personal loss and the price of letting go of the past. Their future awaits, but it is built on disastrous deceits, and more than one life stands in the way of their dreams.A Beautiful Crime is a twisty grifter novel with a thriller running through its veins. But it is also a meditation on love, class, race, sexuality, and the legacy of bohemian culture. Tacking between Venice’s soaring aesthetic beauty and its imminent tourist-riddled collapse, Bollen delivers a ""brilliantly conceived international crime story"" (Good Morning America).Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

About Christopher Bollen

Christopher Bollen is the author of the critically acclaimed novels The Lost Americans, A Beautiful Crime, The Destroyers, Orient, and Lightning People. He is a frequent contributor to a number of publications, including Vanity Fair, the New York Times, and Interview. He lives in New York City.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Dennis on November 14, 2019

First things first, if you're interested in a thriller, but are squeamish or get scared easily, this book is for you. It's not scary nor is it gruesome, but it is good. A Beautiful Crime is my first read by author Christopher Bollen, but now I am totally a fan. The story centers around con-artis......more

Goodreads review by luce (cry bebè's back from hiatus) on August 27, 2021

| | blog | tumblr | ko-fi | | 4.25 stars A Beautiful Crime is a tantalisingly suspenseful part thriller part romance, one that brilliantly captures the landscape, aesthetics, and politics of Venice. “The love of the city had killed its people. Quite simply, Venice had been visited to death.” The open......more

Goodreads review by Chris on May 31, 2020

Good Lord, I am STILL catching up here on Goodreads, adding reviews for books I finished weeks (or even months) ago. How is it that a pandemic and social distancing have made me derelict here? In any case, A BEAUTIFUL CRIME is fantastic -- and I do not throw around that adjective liberally. Christop......more

Goodreads review by Jill on March 20, 2020

Take Patricia Highsmith’s Mr. Ripley and mix well with John Berendt’s City of Fallen Angels and you have a taste of what awaits you with Christopher Bollen’s latest novel. At its heart, it’s a heartfelt ode to Venice: the scandal, skullduggery and seductiveness of this one-of-a-kind city. Into this l......more

Goodreads review by Jordan (Jordy’s Book Club) on December 04, 2020

QUICK TAKE: A stunning crime caper with an LGBTQ twist. Set against the backdrop of Venice, Italy, the story revolves around Nick and Clay, a gay couple running from their troubled past to start fresh in Europe. However, in order to start their new life, the couple needs money, so they decide to sel......more