An explosion at London's British Museum sets off the exhilarating drama of Go Gentle by Maria Semple, narrated by a New Yorker who finds herself at the center of an international art heist connected to her employer. The story is set amid the whimsical grandeur of a prestigious Manhattan address with scenic detours to a French chateau, attractive backdrops for an adventure swirling with art world mystique, comedy, and middle-aged sexual exploits.
Adora Hazzard is a resident philosopher at the swanky Lockwood Library museum. Its fabulously wealthy owners, Layla and Lionel Lockwood, live in a massive glass structure with a statuary garden and guards who are ex-Mossad agents. The novel's Stoic-inspired heroine is convinced her dating days are behind her until, in tandem with the art heist, she unwittingly stumbles into a romance that upends her tidy life. It all starts with a suave, mysterious stranger she meets at the ballet. The erotically charged attraction between Adora and the "expensively moisturized" Digby shatters her peace of mind even as their clever back-and-forth makes for dazzling dialogue. Meanwhile, the latest addition to the Lockwoods' statuary, a valuable French statue of questionable provenance, arrives in New York to great fanfare.
Go Gentle's marvelously madcap storylines converge as the action shifts to Paris and Digby's true identity becomes devastatingly clear, setting into motion an unanticipated finale that will have Semple fans cheering heartily from the sidelines. Semple (Today Will Be Different; Where'd You Go, Bernadette?) is an acclaimed storyteller with a fondness for intellectually dazzling heroines of a certain age, and her fourth novel is her best yet. --Shahina Piyarali