A Glancing Light, by Aaron Elkins

Retrieved from: my library
0684192780, 1991
Suggested by: the authors list
My Ratings: 8 Merit, 7 Interest, 8 Fun

This is not the Skeleton Doctor series. It's another series "starring" an art museum curator which began with this book. I'm not as enamored with the character as I am with Gideon Oliver, but the story was good. I had no clue what in the world was going on, and there were some really well-drawn characters in this book.

The plot revolves around a two-year-old theft of multiple paintings from a museum, a restorer, and a personal collection in Bologna. One of the paintings--a Rubens--turns up in Seattle in a shipment of junk 'artwork' sent to a dealer. When Norgren (the curator) heads to Bologna to finish setting up a show that will be touring (and which is completely unrelated to the thefts), he gets involved in what seems like a Mafia plot to keep the location of the paintings secret. Then it slowly unravels.

Good story. At least it's about the kind of art I like. Norgren doesn't like modern "non-representational" art any more than I do. Thank God! I'll probably keep reading, just to see how many more times he can manage to get himself involved in murders in the art world.