{"id":4881,"date":"2026-01-15T10:53:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T10:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/?p=4881"},"modified":"2026-01-28T16:16:54","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T16:16:54","slug":"thirty-feet-under-a-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/?p=4881","title":{"rendered":"Thirty Feet Under: A Mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"

When an ancient marble sphinx is stolen from a small museum in Italy, the Carabinieri enlist the assistance of the FBI Art Squad in recovering the piece, which may have been smuggled into the United States. Lowly agent Kate Taylor, who has spent the last three years doing dull computer and filing work, is thrilled to be finally assigned to a real case, especially since she\u2019ll be partnering (although via Zoom) with her Italian counterpart, the gorgeous Luca. Meanwhile, failed New York art dealer Paul Krugman has resigned himself to working for his dollar-store-tycoon father until he receives an intriguing call from his British dealer friend, Harry, that will change his life. Both Kate and Paul gradually find themselves involved with an international art-smuggling ring and the lost tomb of Alexander the Great. Ignore the publisher\u2019s blurb; this debut mystery, which was a finalist for the 2024 Crime Writers of Canada Best Unpublished Crime Manuscript, is not the next Dan Brown thriller, and that is a good thing. Wodhams writes with more style and humor than the plodding Brown, and his characters, despite their sometimes irritating and foolish actions, have more appeal than the preachy Robert Langdon. Although the ending feels rushed and a few geographical errors raised this New Yorker\u2019s eyebrows (the 9 subway train was discontinued in 2005), this promising thriller offers an entertaining and insightful look at morally ambiguous art-world trading in looted artifacts<\/strong>. (The book\u2019s title refers to the depth at which significant archaeological findings have often been uncovered).\u2014Willy Williams<\/p>\n

Add Pub Date to my Calendar<\/strong><\/h5>\n
<\/a> <\/a><\/a> <\/a><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When an ancient marble sphinx is stolen from a small museum in Italy, the Carabinieri enlist the assistance of the FBI Art Squad in recovering the piece, which may have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4880,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[54,64,55,56],"class_list":["post-4881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-historical","tag-international","tag-mystery-detective","tag-women-sleuths"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/formidable\/4\/30-Ft-400x400.jpeg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/formidable\/4\/30-Ft.jpeg","author_info":{"display_name":"Willy Williams","author_link":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/?author=7"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}