DOORS OPEN, by Ian Rankin

As the jacket blurbs say, Rankin is a master. Set in Edinburgh, Mike Mackenzie, newly rich from the sale of his software business and now an art patron, is bored. His friend Alan Cruickshank is a boring banker with a constricted life. Professor Robert Gissing is a soon-to-retire art professor with an urge to “liberate” art works kept in storage by the National Gallery. And gangster Chib Calloway doesn't give a rat's ass about art but wants money before Hell's Angels enforcer Hate works him over. The stage is set for an audacious heist that will be pulled off without a hitch. Except for the art forger, the art forger's greedy girlfriend, a curious cop, a concerned art auctioneer, the media, and a kidnapped art historian. This is a typical Rankin: full of tension, fascinating characters, and a denouement you will absolutely not see coming. A 5.

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