The Scopas Factor

The Scopas Factor, by Vincent Panettiere (author of These Thy Gifts and A Woman to Blame, whose protagonist is also Detective Mike Hegan). Published by BookBaby, 1st. edition, 2018. 310 pages (printed edition). Gender: Mystery.

A Hmong refugee seeks asylum in Ban Vinai, Thailand, where she embroiders on a cloth the story of a massacre at the hands of the Laotian army and entrusts it to her teenage daughter. Mike Hegan, Detective of the Chicago Police, is back home after an investigation that had a tragic end on the Caribbean island of Saint Kitts. Hegan and his girlfriend Diana travel to a town in California to meet Diana’s parents, and there they find themselves involved in a kidnapping and a couple of murders that somehow link Diana’s father with the Hmong cloth and with a series of labels with the logo of the Revolutionary Flag of Gadsden. The issue will take them to Antibes, France, where Hegan must decipher a mystery involving forgeries, a sculpture by the greek Scopas and an international criminal network.

With a very well achieved writing —typical to the genre of detective mystery— The Scopas Factor weaves a plot to which extra factors, well written characters and a well-articulated rhythm are added. The story is coherent and without errors or obviousness, and the novel is written impeccably, showing what must be shown and keeping the surprises for the right time. The plot is agile, seductive, fun, exciting and clear enough.

Personally, I have quite enjoyed reading this novel. It seems to me that it has a very good rhythm and extension, and it is easy to read it continuously without getting bored at all. It is easy to sympathize with the characters, who are well built and not too stereotypical, which gives them space to move with ease and feel real. There is action without shocking demonstrations of violence, and there is romance without spilling honey. If you like mystery, art and la France, this book may be for you.

I enjoyed this great book of romance, the arts, and crime so much because its structure is a mixture of simplicity as well as complicated. The simplicity lies in the fact that everything about its storyline felt so amateurish like for instance, the main character’s acquaintances and friends throughout the novel are easily connected (I was wondering how two women that seemed to be so far apart came to be known as two long-lost sisters from war-time Laos… and how they were also related to the wife and daughter of a mayor in California that the main character also stumbles upon. The complicated part I mention earlier is how the novel has a lot of characters and their own little storylines crowd up making me kind of forget about one part of the book and so and so. But through it all, I just loved it because of my affinity for the arts, Europe (especially France) and the charming main character and his sidekicks that are just a delight to read about. The background story of this book dates back to Laos and how a story-cloth there produced by a Hmong woman is the cause of frenzy in some characters in the book who are guilty of murdering this woman’s people therefore if ever he is to be found, he will be charged and possibly put to death.

I would recommend this book to lovers of mysteries and crime stories. I also think those who have a liking for stories that involve the military, Eurasians, and everything revolving around those two elements. I loved the simple language used in this book making it readable and understandable, ha! I loved how the story takes place in France and then here in the USA. I found the references to French dishes in here to be delectable and suitable for this book. I just think the author’s crafting of his novel here was a bit too simple but that’s okay because the suspense and the romance made up for it. This book was so eventful there was no moment of slowness and blandness. Every part of the story there will be a shooting, a poisoning, a kidnapping, sex, and of course references to French and Greek artworks. It’s definitely worth checking out if you ask me. A great start to the Spring time that is arriving soon. Later!

Los Angeles author Vincent Panettiere began his colorful career as a sports writer for a wire service and Boston daily, altered his path by accepting several executive positions at CBS and Fox Network, wrote several film scripts yet to be produced and served as a literary agent for television and film writers and directors, and as a sports agent for major league and professional baseball players. He is the author of THE INTERNET FINANCING SOLUTION, and while that book is an expose of Internet scams, it is also the experience of the author and his personal unfortunate experiences with the Internet global scams. With the success of that first outing with writing he followed with a well-sculpted mystery thriller A WOMAN TO BLAME, and continued his journey to literary importance with THESE THY GIFTS, only to blossom again with THE SCOPAS FACTOR.

Vincent’s facility with language allows him to say so much in so few poignant words. And example of this is his opening paragraphs – ‘No one knew the name or age of the person they called the Mud Woman. She seemed to have been a part of the Hmong exodus from Northern Laos since the first day of their journey. None could be certain. With her dun-colored bundle she was one of many solitary, nameless people on the trek. All were fleeing the Laotian army. Sometimes the bundle was balanced on her head or slung over her shoulder. If anyone paid her any attention, that was the only change they saw from the start of their hurried flight to their final settlement in Ban Vinai, located some 350 miles north of Bangkok. She was just another piece in a coagulated mass of humanity. The woman did not speak, and no one could engage her downcast eyes long enough to pose an inquiry. However, the depth of her soul-weary sadness did not require explanation. There were cots and washrooms to provide shelter and warmth in a longhouse awaiting the new residents at Ban Vinai. The woman preferred a patch of dirt near the outer perimeter of the camp and settled in under the tarp rolled up in her bundle. Not until the others saw her remove some branches that had been whittled into tent pegs did she appear to be an enterprising woman, prepared for hard times. She trundled her way to the chow line twice a day—in the morning for a breakfast bowl of porridge and later for a dinner of noodles and vegetables courtesy of some United Nations-sponsored refugee relief committee. Relieved of the burden she’d carried for hundreds of miles, the woman exposed her time-worn visage, allowing all to see the impact of the pain she bore on her diminutive frame. Still, there was a vestige of energy in her eyes that belied her physical being. In good weather, her days were spent outside her lean-to refuge, drawing in the dirt with a wooden stick. A joyous spirit emerged as she etched in the soil, even if her life contained more misery than pleasure. She was happy with her work, as though achieving a long-suppressed mission. When the runoff after a rain erased her drawing, she would recreate the sketch in the mud. The pleasure was less apparent in those times. Worry creased her broad forehead each time she feared the image would be lost. Then she hurriedly worked the stick in the ground to hold fast the picture in her mind. No one realized she drew to remember, trying to keep the images alive so that one day others would know. Occasionally, other camp dwellers would pass to observe her concentrated efforts at replicating the original dirt drawing. From that vantage she was referenced as the Mud Woman.’

The very brief summary offered before reading is adequate to place us in the realm of the gist of the tale. ` A Hmong “story cloth,” a Revolutionary War battle flag, forged Picassos and a Russian drug dealer—finding the link between these disparate elements is the challenge Mike Hegan, a veteran police detective being forced to retire on medical disability (who was introduced in A WOMAN TO BLAME) faces in The Scopas Factor. After his last investigation ends tragically, Detective Mike Hegan returns to Chicago from St. Kitts, hoping to put everything behind him. But his girlfriend, Diana, has other plans, and although he has no interest in the job opportunity she presents him—in a small northern California town, no less—he wants to please her. Upon his arrival in Weedley, he’s caught up in a kidnapping and two murders. A visit to Diana’s family in San Francisco only serves to deepen the mystery, as her father might be the link to a gang of antiquities thieves that might have something to do with the crimes in Weedley. And when Diana’s father disappears, Hegan takes off for Antibes in southern France, where he discovers that the mystery has only just begun.’

Vincent Panettieri is molding a remarkably solid stance as a writer of substance. His insights, sensitivity to issues – contemporary and enduring ones, and his eloquent prose place him near the top of today’s authors’ peak. Highly recommended.

Apparently this is the second novel that has featured Detective Mike Hegan, but I don’t believe that it matters if you haven’t read the first one to get plenty of enjoyment out of ‘The Scopas Factor’. It is a mystery novel that takes you all over the world to figure out a number of conundrums that are somehow related. The characters, particularly Mike himself, are intriguing and empathetic, and you will be wondering right up until the end what their motivations truly are. If you are a fan of old school detective novels, ‘The Scopas Factor’ definitely has a film noir feel about it, but brought up to the contemporary age.

Vincent Panettiere’s third novel, The Scopas Factor features great intrigue and plot development as do Panettiere’s two previous novels. Detective Hegan, whom we have grown to champion before, takes on an even greater and more confounding mystery, which is not only expressly elusive but somewhat morphable, and leads him through personal doubts and concerns, as well as a wide geographical span. The devil-may-care, he-man behavior of Mike Hegan lends both attractiveness and credibility to his exhilarating character.
The award-winning Panettiere’s ability is showcased at its sharpest yet in this thrilling, nonstop action mystery.

Talk about an author with an interestingly wicked background, writing a globe-trotting international thriller, taking place around the world. With skills similar to that of a black widow spider, Panettiere spins beautifully a woven masterpiece of a story. Twist and turns are subtle, to say the least. A true definition of the word detail. Inputting into fewer words rather than many. This sets the stage for that of a truly gifted writer distinguishability. Read what you can, save all that you have for these stories.

‘The Scopas Factor’ by Vincent Panettiere is one of those books that draw you in without you even realise it and before you know it 3 hours have gone by. There is a power to his writing style that intrigues and engrosses you in equal measure that simply makes you unable to put the book down. The story starts in Laos with the mysterious Mud Woman, one of many fleeing the brutality of the Laotian army who would spend her days drawing in the dirt with a stick. Throughout, the course of the novel you will learn how this relates to seemingly random things including an isolated community in the Asian mountains, Picasso forgeries, and a Russian drug dealer. Detective Mike Hegan is the man tasked with making the connections, and with kidnapping and murder thrown into the mix, he has quite the task on his hands.

This is the first novel I have read from Vincent Panettiere, but I’m sure it won’t be the last. The novel was exciting, tense, thrilling, and even insightful and informative. When it comes to contemporary fiction, it doesn’t come much better than this.