9. Saint's Gate - Carla Neggers

(It DOES look there will be more...)

2011, Mira Books

334 pgs.

Adult Murder Mystery

Finished 1/26/2015

Goodreads rating:  3.64

My rating: 2 - It was okay, but didn't grab me at all

TPPL

Setting:  Contemporary southern Maine coast (with a tiny bit of Dublin, Ireland thrown in)

1st sentence/s:  "Emma Sharpe steeled herself against the sights and sounds of her pas adn kept up with the nervous woman rushing ahead of her in the dense southern Maine fog."

My comments:  I SOOOO wanted to like this book, but it was a little too like a cozy mystery for me.  The story could have been told quite well in 100-or so less pages.  The introduction and description of the two major paintings in the story were confusing...it took me more than awhile to realize that two different paintings were being discussed.  There were too many solutions that just fell into their laps (one chapter even began with the protagonist "finding" a key to get into the rectory, a place he's never before been.....).  One of the reasons I picked up this book was the setting - I've been in all those smallish Maine coastal towns hundreds of times and the descriptions in the book didn't take me there at all.  Not even a little.  So I was really disappointed.  However, I bet there are lots of mystery readers that will love this book...a "lighter" mystery than my tastes crave.

Goodreads book summary:  When Emma Sharpe is summoned to a convent on the Maine coast, it's partly for her art crimes work with the FBI, partly because of her past with the religious order. At issue is a mysterious painting depicting scenes of Irish lore and Viking legends, and her family's connection to the work. But when the nun who contacted her is murdered, it seems legend is becoming deadly reality.   
          Colin Donovan is one of the FBI's most valuable assets -- a deep-cover agent who prefers to go it alone. He's back home in Maine after wrapping up his latest mission, but his friend Father Bracken presents him with an intrigue of murder, international art heists and a convent's long-held secrets that is too tempting to resist. As the danger spirals ever closer, Colin is certain of only one thing—the very intriguing Emma Sharp is at the center of it all.    
          A ruthless killer has Emma and Colin in the crosshairs, plunging them into a race against time and drawing them deeper into a twisted legacy of betrayal and deceit.

52. The Other Rembrandt - Alex Connor

Silver Oak Publishing, 2011
Pap $14.95
for adults
392 pgs.
Rating:  4
First line:  His body was bent over, his head submerged in the confines of the basin, his knees buckled, trousers pulled down.
Setting:  London, Amsterdam, and New York
OSS:  Marshall Zeigler, who has always avoided his family's interest and business in the art world, finds himself pulled into it when his father is brutally murdered.

The entire story revolves around letters that Rembrandt's mistress, Geertje Dircx (oh, how I wish I knew how that was pronounced) wrote while she was incarcerated in a prison/asylum.  She tells of the Rembrandt, and of Rembrandt's students who, under Rembrandt's tutelage and instructions, painted portraits in his style and passed them off as the great master's.  The letters have been secretly held by Marshall's father, Owen, and could change the whole world of Renaissance art.

Four murders take place surrounding these letters, and Marshall has to piece it all together.  Woven into the fabric of the story are the letters that Geertze Dircx wrote.  She had been treated horribly by Rembrandt, and had secrets to tell, of Rembrandt's cruelty, of an illegitimate son, also a painter, and of the art scams pulled off by Rembrandt.  And, apparently, some of this is based on actual hints and facts that have been passed down through the years!

There are many characters, and we must decide who to trust, who is telling the truth, who has secrets of their own to hide.  I figured out the culprit about 2/3 of the way through the book, but the surprise twist at the end surprised me, and keeps me wondering still.  The book kept my attention and made me think.  I liked it.