One of these days I am going to find a good theme book that can balance the theme and the mystery. It's going to happen, really, but not with Old Scores.Don't get me wrong; this book is fantastic if you want to learn about art history or know about art history, and that's why I gave it three stars and not two. I like art crimes and studying them, as I think there are a lot of good moral questions brought up when it comes to the ownership of old paintings and museums. This book does a great job of delving into those questions and making the reader think about what exactly is happening in the art world of this fictional market.The problem is that this is a murder mystery, or rather, the murder mystery is peppered in here and there with only mentioning it occasionally. The mystery is solved in a matter of minutes after a long and drawn out "investigation" by Chris Norgren, the protagonist. He just really investigates a supposed Rembrandt painting and then somehow figures out the murderer. This is also a style that I don't like, since we find out how he knew in the last chapters instead of getting clues throughout the book.By the end of this book, I was just ready for it to be over. I think Elkins failed to weave the murder mystery in with the art mystery, and cutting one or the other to make it a non murder cozy mystery would have done wonders for the plot and my personal engagement. The random, angst ridden relationship also muddled things up for me, although I liked that Ann was as confused as I was in the end.
A good read, and good fun. This is the third, and apparently the last (dated 1993) of Elkins' stories about Chris Norgren, and art expert and inadvertent detective. I wish Elkins had kept them up. I liked all of them, and this the best. Elkins handles the art world with expertise, and its ins and outs are essential to the story--it's not just interesting color. He does the same for the local background (Dijon and Paris), and the historical background, and comes up with an intricate, challenging, and coherent mystery that presents one possible interpretation after another, and a satisfying, but not simple, resolution.I particularly like the complexity and contradictory impressions Elkins plays with and integrates into the story. In the hands of a "serious" novelist (absit omen), these would have been pointlessly bloated and, pointlessly, made into a dreary and ever-present motif. Elkins treats them more lightly as literary elements, though by no means lightly as intellectual or moral considerations. This is more believable than the "serious" approach, corresponding to the way such things intrude (as they constantly do) into normal life, whose day-to-day concerns must be attended to nonetheless. It is also less offensive and more mature--Elkins does not need to use the tactics of an in-your-face enthusiast to get his point across.Elkins does this sort of thing to one degree or another in a number of his books, which is one of many reasons I enjoy them.
What do You think about Old Scores (1994)?
This book is really quite interesting to me. It delves into the world of art, particularly painting and painters. Most of the book is set in France so some knowledge of french culture, France and the french language is helpful but not entirely necessary. Easy to read and a good proportion of verbosity; it is similar to Mr. Goldsborough's writings. Won the '93 Nero Award.Chris Norgren acts as a procurement director at the Seattle Art Museum. He is given the opportunity to pick up a Rembrandt as a donation from a shady art dealer in France. He cannot use any scientific methods in order to determine the authenticity of the painting. Mr. Norgren travels to France and the adventure ensues.
—James Fearn
This was a good story and a fair mystery. What I mean is that the background story about the world of art dealing and dealers was more interesting than the mystery itself. I think this was partly due to the way the main character did not actually investigate the murder. He was mostly investigating the background of a painting. The cops told him to stay out of the way then they were never seen again until the last couple of pages. I think that reduced the mystery down to a subplot rather than the main story line.
—Jim
