Take No More: James Blake, Book 1 (Unabridged‪)‬

Here’s the challenge: piece the puzzle together

This is an artful puzzle. I loved the nuanced voice and the suspenseful interpretation of the story by Shiromi Arsenio. The performance was riveting to listen to.

Structured by time and place, part I of TAKE NO MORE occurs Friday to Sunday in London; The rest occur in Florence. Part II occurs six days earlier; part III four days later; part IV six days earlier; part V four days later. So right away you realize how the author goes back and forth in time, challenging you to piece this puzzle together.

When the protagonist, James Blake, finds his wife murdered, he starts piecing together her work for a dangerous Italian family. For him, this is both an intellectual and an emotional challenge. As an art conservator, she was hoping to find a lost paintings, `Leda and the Swan' which may have been painted over to save it from destruction.

Carefully researched, the story is anchored in real facts in art history (Michaelangelo’s Leda and the Swan is missing.) From these details, which grant authenticity to the writing, the author has cast a wide web of imagination. In composing this story, Seb Kirby adds to the magic of the wonderful words and stories he discovered in the treasure trove of books in his grandfather’s mobile lending library.