Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Review: The Sirena Quest (The Sirena Quest #1) by Michael A. Kahn









  • Paperback: 287 pages
  • Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press; 1 edition (Jan. 6 2015)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1464203520
  • ISBN-13: 978-1464203527

Book Description


 The New York Times Sunday Magazine piece famously opened: She has pouting lips and high round breasts. Thousands of men have dreamt of her. Hundreds have chased after her. Two have died in pursuit. Her name is Sirena, she weighs 193 pounds, and she vanished in 1959. Without a trace. Barrett College s legendary Greco-Roman sculpture s fate was still a hot topic in 1970 when four roommates began their freshman year at the New England school. They ve gone their separate ways for years. But as the 1994 commencement approaches, they are about to reunite to meet a challenge thrown down by a Class of 59 hedge-fund billionaire. He has pledged a $25 million endowment plus a $3 million purse to her finder(s) if Sirena is restored to Barrett by June 17th, the date of his 35th reunion, the college s sesquicentennial celebration and our foursome s 20th class reunion. Although they are not alone in their pursuit groups of alumni, including a pair of aggressive and highly-financed classmates, are running down leads across the world St. Louis lawyer Lou Solomon and his crew come upon an obscure but intriguing clue. It leads them to Chicago where a young lawyer called Rachel Gold may hold key information. As the men race to crack the Sirena puzzle, their quest will transform their lives in unexpected ways."


About the Author

 Pseudonym for Michael Baron.

Michael Kahn is a trial lawyer by day and an author at night. He wrote his first novel, GRAVE DESIGNS, on a challenge from his wife Margi, who got tired of listening to the same answer whenever she asked him about a book he was reading. "Not bad," he would say, "but I could write a better book than that." "Then write one," she finally said, "or please shut up." So he shut up for a few months--no easy task for an attorney--but finally wrote one.

Kahn is the award-winning author of: seven Rachel Gold novels; an eighth novel, THE MOURNING SEXTON, under the pen name Michael Baron; and several short stories.

In addition to his day job as a lawyer, he is an adjunct professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, where he teaches a class on censorship and free expression. Married to his high school sweetheart, he is the father of five and the grandfather of, so far, four.


http://www.michaelakahn.com/ 


My Review

I have to agree with Publishers Weekly who called The Sirena Quest by author Michael A. Kahn "equal parts rollicking adventure, existential and spiritual quest , and coming of (middle) age tale..this heartwarming misadventure isn't so much about four middle-aged men finding a statue as about finding themselves."

One of my favorite movies of all time is It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World which has competing groups searching for a treasure. The Sirena Quest involves college alumni groups searching for a missing statue named Sirena. The Greco-Roman statue vanished in 1959 from the campus of Barrett College. A rich alumni has pledged a $25M endowment to the college as well as $3M to the finders. It needs to be returned to the college for the 35th reunion of the rich alumni in 1994.

1994 is also the 20th reunion for lawyer Lou Soloman and his classmates. Lou along with three of his former classmates accept the challenge to search for Sirena. The Sirena Quest is a mystery but more importantly it is an adventure-filled male-bonding experience!

Fun book! Well written and enjoyable read!





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