Death in a Bygone Hue review
Susan Van Kirk’s second art center
mystery, Death in a Bygone Hue” is an engrossing and pleasant
cozy mystery. My caveat here is simply a mention that I have known Sue as a neighbor and friend for
many years and she is aware that my personal preference in detective procedurals calls for a bit
more guts than the “cozy” genre generally supplies.
With that said, I still love her
single, delightful, and unabashedly inquisitive heroine Jill Madison. Jill is a
budding artist, and Executive Director of an art center in a small midwestern
town. Just as she is readying the center’s first national juried exhibition,
Judge Spivey, her good friend and the treasurer of her Board of Directors, dies
suspiciously. This suddenly puts her as a sleuth in search of a killer as well
as a suspect in the crime. The judge’s will, unknown to her, has
disinherited his adult children and left all of his valuable paintings and his
money to Jill and the Art Center. A local newspaper woman adds fuel to the fire
by writing articles accusing Jill of the crime and a final fan to the flames
exposes concerns about the judge’s hidden past during the Viet Nam
War.
Van Kirk’s tightly plotted narrative
comes nicely equipped with a jolly sidekick and a handsome emergency room doctor from the local
hospital who adds just a touch of steam to her life. Witness this quote, “I
found myself falling for him as he hugged me, kissed my forehead, and headed
for the door. He actually thought my work was important. He could be a keeper.”
Another plus is the unique setting
of the book in an arts center. I cheerfully admit that I know this art center
since Van Kirk has fictionalized the real one that operates in our town. When
Judge Spivey’s painting collection is discovered to be valuable, it opens up the
plot to potential art theft and forgery, which extends the plot well beyond the
locality where the crime was committed. This allows a reader to pick up just
enough discussion of how art shows are run, how exhibits are hung, and how
provenance operates in the art world itself to add depth to the setting without
slipping into the aesthetic weeds.
Van Kirk’s book is not going to knock
Agatha Christie or Louise Penny off the top rung of the ladder quite yet, but
she had me guessing the wrong villain right up to the final suspenseful
confrontation. That, for my money, is what a good solid enjoyable read is all
about. I give it a 4 out of 5. Get a copy!
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