Review of the novel “Vanishing Point 2” by Martin Michaud

Phew. This is what we can’t help but feel when we finish reading Vanishing point 2the second part of Martin Michaud’s new trilogy. This is obviously due to the very nature of this saga set in the middle of the art market and in which the underworld also plays a major role. It is impossible to summarize the complexity of this intricate intrigue which has ramifications in time as well as in space, since we find ourselves there just as much in Charlevoix as in Mexico or in Europe, at different times. You just need to know that here Alice — the ex-police officer, daughter of the art dealer at the heart of the story — joins forces with her father’s sworn enemy to try to find her parents kidnapped by members of ‘a sect based in Matamoros, Mexico. Phew, what were we saying…

No Victor Lessard here, then. Rather a tight web of overlapping plots based on what defines each of the main characters. First of all, the Lavoies who, unbeknownst to their daughter Alice, are art dealers deeply involved in counterfeiting and trafficking in stolen works… which has long put them in contact with the Italian underworld and more precisely that of Montreal. And Francis Lazarre on the other hand, who specializes in the theft and trade in fake works of art… and who has also been linked for a long time to a Sicilian “family”. At the heart of this immense spider’s web built on falsehood, we find two works, two real webs that everyone wants to get their hands on… Even more so since they are the currency demanded by the smoky LuzEspiritu sect. run by Alice’s grandfather. Yes, you read that right.

Add to that an impossible love story spanning several decades, the intermittent presence of a ghost, a plane crash followed by a desperate flight into the jungle, a corrupt cop, the theft of a painting from a museum high security in Zurich, bloodthirsty mafiosi and a few hostages here and there… You have already grasped the essence of this disproportionate work, which is more like a comic strip and a thriller on a grand scale with special effects in spades than a novel. So much so, in fact, that we suggest you take notes to make sure you understand it.

However, Martin Michaud is still Martin Michaud and he often manages to surprise us with unexpected flashes placed everywhere through the meshes of his story. This does not prevent the fact that the reader will have the impression throughout – probably because of the division of the plot and the editing of the various elements which are constantly piled on top of each other – of being immersed in a story written… for television or for cinema. Who knows, once the series is over, Martin Michaud will perhaps return to his ambitions as a novelist.

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