Stealing Ghosts (Charnes)

Stealing Ghosts  (The DeWitt Agency Files, 2)
Lance Charnes, 2017
Wombat Media Group
344 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780988690387


Summary
Dorotea DeVillardi is ninety-one years old, gorgeous, and worth a fortune. Matt Friedrich’s going to steal her.

The Nazis seized Dorotea’s portrait from her Viennese family, then the Soviets stole it from the Nazis. Now it’s in the hands of a Russian oligarch. Dorotea’s corporate-CEO grandson played by the legal rules to get her portrait back, but he struck out. So he’s hired the DeWitt Agency to get it for him – and he doesn’t care how they do it.

Now Matt and Carson, his ex-cop partner, have to steal Dorotea’s portrait from a museum so nobody knows it’s gone, and somehow launder its history so the client doesn’t have to hide it forever. The client’s saddled them with a babysitter: Dorotea’s granddaughter Julie, who may have designs on Matt as well as the painting. As if this wasn’t hard enough, it looks like someone else is gunning for the same museum – and he may know more about Matt and Carson’s plans than he should.

Matt went to prison for the bad things he did at his L.A. art gallery. Now he has a chance to right an old wrong by doing a bad thing for the best of reasons. All he has to do is stay out of jail long enough to pull it off. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—1960
• Where—Oakland, California, USA
• Education—B.A. University of California, Berkeley; M.S.,California State University, Long Beach
• Currently—lives in Orange County, California


Lance Charnes has been an Air Force intelligence officer, information technology manager, computer-game artist, set designer and Jeopardy! contestant, and is now an emergency management specialist. He’s had training in architectural rendering, terrorist incident response and maritime archaeology, but not all at the same time. His Facebook author page features spies, archaeology and art crime.

Lance is the author of the international thriller DOHA 12, the near-future thriller SOUTH, and the DEWITT AGENCY FILES series of international art-crime novels. All are available in trade paperback and digital editions. He's also a frequent contributor to Macmillan's Criminal Element website. (From the author.)

Visit the author's website.
Follow Lance on Facebook.

Discussion Questions
1. The back-cover synopsis for this novel says that Matt’s "doing a bad thing for the best of reasons." Can good intentions make up for doing the wrong thing? How do Matt’s and Carson’s sins stack up against those of the other characters (seen and unseen)?

2. Put yourself in Ron Bowen’s and Julie’s positions. If the only way you can retrieve a priceless family treasure is to steal it, would you? If not, how else might you get that treasure back if legal measures have failed?

3. Do you have mementos of your grandparents or earlier relatives? If so, are there some that seem more precious than others? Why are they special? What resonance do you find in Julie saying about her grandmother’s other paintings (p. 282 in the print edition), "Those are just things she owned. This [meaning the portrait] is her"?

4. Did Julie become Gillian, or was she Gillian all along? Use examples from the text to support your conclusion.

5. Have you ever been in a romantic relationship with someone of a significantly different age? If so, were you the older or younger participant? Why did you do it? What did you learn from the experience?

6. Is Ute Kinigader a victim or co-perpetrator of her father’s crimes? Why?

7. Matt and Geisman debate how they should deal with Ute Kinigader after they interview her (Chapter 63, starting on page 298 of the print edition). Whose argument do you agree with more: Matt’s, or Geisman’s? Why? What third approach can you propose that they didn’t discuss?

8. Part of Matt’s motivation to finish this project is to atone for what he helped do to Ida Rothenberg, a Holocaust survivor his gallery cheated. Do you think he succeeds? Why or why not? What’s your definition of "atonement" or "redemption" in this situation?

9. Who was your favorite character, and why? Who was your least-favorite character, and why? Who was the strongest character, and what made him/her seem that way to you?

10. If you also read The Collection (the first in the DeWitt series): Describe how you think Matt’s and Carson’s relationship has changed from that story to this one. Why do you think this change happened? What do you expect of their relationship in future stories?

11. With which character do you identify with most closely? Why?

12. Did anything happen that surprised you? If so, what and why?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)

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