Ghosts of the Past by Mark Downer tells the story of how in the summer of 2001, Matt Ferguson finds a letter from his recently deceased Uncle Max Hignite, a former Nazi Luftwaffe pilot during WWII. In his note, Max details how the plane he was flying over Switzerland crash-landed into a cave and it contained dozens of crates of priceless European art stolen by the Nazis during WWII. He also drew a map of the location, with the specific coordinates, however, Matt can't read German.
He seeks out assistance from a language professor at the local college, Professor Johann Karl, who begins translating the letter and, upon seeing the included bill of lading containing a delineated list of artists and works, mentions a student he is tutoring named Courtney Lewis, an assistant curator at a local museum, who is due to arrive for tutoring in an hour. When Matt returns, he finds a beautiful and intelligent young woman who is clearly excited about the find, once she is allowed to read the list. As the pair press Matt for more details on what his uncle has told him over the years, he reveals one of two small oil paintings he found amongst the things Uncle Max left him. Sure enough, one of them is identified by Courtney as a famous missing work! She insists he get them authenticated and insured, for his own protection, and arranges for them to meet with her father, the new curator of the Chicago Art Institute. Much to Matt's surprise, Grayson Lewis has invited several others to the meeting to authenticate and insure the works, all highly respected men in the art world. Matt really wanted to keep this a secret...
But then not long after, Matt's home is broken into and he is attacked, while badly injuring one of the robbers before they both escape. He realizes that while they trashed his house, the copy of the letter from Uncle Max is missing. Who is out to steal his find? Could it be the entrancing Courtney Lewis, her father or one of his cohorts, or even the elderly Professor Karl? As it turns out, there are several folks out to get their hands on the art find of the century.
Before long, there is a team of Germans after the art, as well as a team of South Americans whose boss, Guillermo Rocca, wants to add the paintings to his impressive but very illegal and stolen art collection. Matt and Courtney soon realize that they are both in grave danger, and despite the fact that they don't really trust each other, they'll need to work together to get out of this alive and find the missing art, if it even still exists.
To complicate matters, Detective Toby Shutt is investigating not only the break-in at Matt's home, but also a series of odd murders that occur not long after that. Once he starts making connections, he realizes he needs to further interview Matt and his new sidekick, Courtney, but not before the pair hop on a plane to Switzerland to find the art before anyone else. It'll take some fancy footwork for Matt and Courtney to stay one step ahead of not only the police, but also the dangerous men following them. Neither one is anxious to lose their lives for some art that may exist, but the find is too tempting to resist. And their obvious growing attraction to one another is just another perk. This could be the greatest adventure of their lives, or the one that ends them permanently.
Ghosts of the Past is a fun adventure from start to finish. While I will admit that the many goons working for the Germans and South Americans often got muddled together in my head, since there were some German/Swiss locals and some Americans involved as well, it didn't affect my enjoyment of the story. Since everyone was after the art, it was pretty easy to follow what was going on.
If a WWII-tinged adventure about stolen art, with a nice dose of romance and plenty of action piques your interest, you'll probably really enjoy Ghosts of the Past. I definitely did. Highly recommended.
