A Deceptive Clarity
By Aaron Elkins
3.5/5
()
About this ebook
Chris Norgren, museum curator and Renaissance art expert, heads to Berlin to assist in mounting a sensational exhibit: The Plundered Past—twenty priceless Old Masters looted by the Nazis, thought for decades to be lost forever, and only recently rediscovered.
But things quickly get out of hand when Chris’s patrician, fastidious boss, after sensing a forgery in the lot, turns up dead the very next day—on the steps of a dismal Frankfurt brothel, of all places. Now, Chris faces a daunting task: finding a counterfeit artwork among the masterpieces—and an all-too-real killer whose sights are now set on him.
A Deceptive Clarity is the first in the Chris Norgren Mysteries by the multiple award–winning creator of the Gideon Oliver “Skeleton Detective” novels—a celebrated master who “thoroughly understands the art of the murder mystery” (The Philadelphia Inquirer).
Aaron Elkins
Aaron Elkins’s mysteries and thrillers have earned him an Edgar, an Agatha, a Nero Wolfe Award, and a Malice Domestic Lifetime Achievement Award. His nonfiction works have appeared in Smithsonian magazine, the New York Times magazine, and Writer’s Digest. A former anthropology professor, Elkins is known for starting the forensic-mystery genre with his 1982 novel, Fellowship of Fear. He currently serves as the anthropological consultant for the Olympic Peninsula Cold Case Task Force in Washington State. Elkins lives in Washington with his wife, Charlotte—his occasional collaborator—who is also an Agatha winner.
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Reviews for A Deceptive Clarity
53 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fun. This is the first one with this character - I've read all three before, but not recently. I do get a lot of echoes of the first Skeleton Detective story, but it's not really the same. As usual with an Elkins, the characters are vividly drawn. even the minor ones (Jessick would drive me mad!). The setup is convincing, the murder and other attacks are very nasty, and the trick that finally reveals who's behind all of it is very clever. Appropriately cruel. I like Chris.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is the first in Andrew Elkins' series of thrillers about an art historian who gets involved in art crimes, which spill over into more commonplace criminality -- like assault and battery. This book is set in Berlin, shortly before the wall came down, and catches the atmosphere of the time and place. The protagonist is interesting, with a convincing set of personal problems, and the other characters are well drawn. The crime itself was less interesting to me than the art historical shenanagins that surround it. A good read.