Cyndi J. (cyndij) reviewed on 12/9/2018 + 1031 more book reviews

Sixth in the series, originally published in 1989, no need to have read the previous although there is a little backstory you'll miss. Lt Sigrid Harald of the NYPD attends a party at a small art/historical home museum with her SO, famous artist Oscar Nauman. After the party, a member of the museum's Board is found murdered. He was an unpleasant man with a penchant for ferreting out other's misdeeds, so the slate of potential suspects is large. Complicating the case is that Nauman has been friends with many of them for years. During the investigation quite a few nefarious doings come to light. I might have gotten more out of this if I were conversant in modern art; names and concepts are abundant but most of it went over my head. But the mystery isn't dependent on knowing those things. I did not guess the villain in this one, I guessed someone who didn't have anything to do with it - I'm not usually that far off so that was fun. I liked the snippets of old letters that Maron worked in. I didn't like the relationship between Rick and Pascal...there was definitely a squicky feeling given Pascal's problems. There's another subplot involving decades-old murders that seemed totally superfluous, I guess Maron wants to show that the department has more than one thing to work on. And though this is set just before Christmas, the time of year plays no part in the story other than some descriptions of shopping and lights. All in all, enjoyable reading although IMHO not one of Maron's strongest efforts.

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