Gabriel Farago x 2

Gabriel Farago is an international, bestselling Australian author of the Jack Rogan mysteries. I have already enjoyed several of his books, among them The Kimberley Secret and Professor K: The Final Quest. His hero, Jack Rogan, is a man entirely to my liking. He is an Australian journalist, interested in history and mysteries. Charming, talented, and with a certain kind of humour, he seems to fit in anywhere.  It was nice to meet him again in two books I read during my Caribbean holiday over Christmas and New Year:  The Forgotten Painting and The Curious Case of the Missing Head.

The Forgotten Painting

I divide the books about Jack Rogan into the earlier ones and the later ones. The earlier ones, of which The Forgotten Painting is one, is of a more 'simple' structure, than the newer books by Farago. I classify them as an old fashion mystery book à la Agatha Christie. They are based on a mystery in the past which Rogan is trying to solve.

"When celebrated author Jack Rogan stumbles upon a hidden diary, he can’t resist investigating. Honouring the last wish of a dying friend, he is irresistibly drawn into a web of intriguing clues, hinting at a long forgotten treasure. 

Joining forces with Cecilia Crawford, a glamorous New York journalist, and Tristan, a remarkable boy with psychic powers, Jack soon finds himself on a precarious journey of discovery, exposing dark secrets from a distant, violent time, when life was cheap and cruelty ruled without mercy. 

Will Rogan succeed? Can he find the forgotten treasure he has been searching for, or will it be lost forever, depriving the world of a masterpiece that belongs to all mankind."

The forgotten treasure is a painting, lost since World War II.  Rogan's quest to find the treasure, mentioned in a diary, takes him all over Europe, from the dens of forgers into the most exclusive auctioneering houses of Europe. But it does not end there. Are the clues Rogan found really true or is someone playing with them?

Gabriel Farago notes that The Forgotten Painting is a novella, and thus shorter than his ordinary novels. He chose this genre as a way to introduce new readers to his work. It does work very well. Personally, I love mysteries of this kind, and when we think we know the answer to the mystery, the story takes another turn. A good introduction to Farago's hero.

The Curious Case of the Missing Head

With his later books, Gabriel Farago has entered into the world of international crime, and he does it with great skills. The stories are well built up and very complex. The different storylines are skillfully merging in the end.

"Esteemed Australian journalist Jack Rogan is on a mission to solve the disappearance of his mother in the 70s. But when a friend needs help rescuing a kidnapped world-renowned astrophysicist, he doesn’t hesitate. Struggling with more questions than answers, his investigation leads them aboard a hellish hospital ship, where instead of finding the kidnap victim, he’s confronted with a decapitated corpse. 

As the search intensifies, Jack bumps up against diabolical cartels with hidden agendas. And when his research reveals dubious experiments, a criminal on death row, and a shocking revelation about his mother’s fate, he must uncover how it’s all linked.
Can Jack unravel the twisted connections and catch the scientist’s killer, or will the next obituary published be his own? 

The Curious Case of the Missing Head is the fifth standalone novel in the page-turning Jack Rogan Mysteries series. If you like meticulous theoretical science, exponentially increasing intensity, and astonishing surprises, then you’ll love Gabriel Farago’s hair-raising medical thriller."

This is a thriller that keeps you hooked from the first page to the last. Farago's thrillers are so well researched. Often science plays a big role in the stories, as here, and it is impressive how much detail we are given. That is what makes his stories seem trustworthy.

What I also like with this novel, as well as with Farago's other novels, is that the characters are carefully sketched. Usually, people are either good or bad. Farago gives both the good and the bad ones more dimensional characters.

In principle, there are two mysteries in this novel; the long-ago disappearance of Rogan's mother and the kidnapping of a scientist. You wonder how Farago will be able to tie together two such separate stories in the end, but he does.

The Jack Rogan mysteries can be read in any order. Each book has a story that is finalised in the end. As I said, I love some of the earlier books where you meet Rogan as he starts his 'career' as an investigating journalist. However, it is no problem to start with later books, where the stories are more complex.

On Gabriel Farago's website, you can get a free download of some of his earlier books. His newsletters are also worth subscribing too.