Murder at the National Gallery

When a music critic reported after a recital that Margaret Truman couldn't sing very well, her father, the sitting president, wrote to him: "Someday I hope to meet you. When that happens, you'll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below!" Thus, it is painful to report that as a writer she should have stuck to singing. In this effort, about a long lost Caravaggio, Richard Poe does not rise above the material. All his European characters, cultured or criminal, Italian or French, sound alike, and all sound like Americans putting on accents for a spaghetti commercial. But then, they were all written that way. B.G. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine

July 1, 1996
Truman, daughter of Harry and Bess, centers the latest in her Capitol Crimes series, starring Washington, D.C., insiders Annabel and Mac Reed, in the often corrupt world of international art. Although the title incident doesn't occur until nearly the last chapter, the pace of the preceding action is breathless. As the National Gallery prepares for a special Caravaggio exhibit, senior curator Luther Mason happens to "discover" a lost Caravaggio masterpiece while in Italy. Installing the original in the exhibit but making plans to replace it afterwards, Mason, aided by cultural attache Carlo Giliberti, commissions two forgeries--one to send back to Italy and the other to sell to an underground art dealer who believes he is buying the original. In the meantime, Mason must deal with his scrounging son, Julian, and his mistress and gallery assistant, Lynn Marshall, who is angling for a quick promotion. Along for the ride is well-known art critic, the asexual M. Scott Pims, who adores intrigue. After four murders, the players who remain meet for a thrilling chase from Rome to Abruzzi. The amiable Reeds--Annabel is a gallery owner and Mac a law school professor--are in top form here.