One of the great joys of reading is finding a book you really like and then discovering there is a whole series of them (and that hopefully the author is alive and well and not getting fed up with her own creation.) Genevieve, Estelle Ryan's central character would query the expression "fed up" with the admonition that she was certainly not encountering hunger pangs and should she be then she would inform us. I find myself thinking about language, and observation of behaviour. It is a book that glamourises Psychology and collaboration, about the nature of power and corruption. It is a European book rather than American in its subtlety of descriptions and the pace of the action sequences but it is all about the interaction between Dr Lenard,Genevieve, Jenny, Jen-girl, Dr Face-Reader, Missy and everybody else surrounding her (and her personal space). How they establish friendships and work on problem-solving whilst Genevieve copes with her high-functioning autism. It is about roles, and powerful women, and authority, and Art and the insuring of it. I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope that there might even be some Romance in the air with Colin the criminal who might not be... Genevieve works things out and we sit right alongside her and read about it with the Mozart filling the spaces that can frighten the horses. To which Genevieve would confusedly reply "I have no horses and would never frighten then, certainly not deliberately. Horses would statistically ...." I find her fascinating. If we could introduce Cumberpatch's Sherlock to Ryan's Dr Lenard their lovechild might well conquer the known world. "Jenny" is a fascinating character: a genius and renown expert on art forgery & body language; she's learned to hyper-focus because of, or despite her autism diagnosis. Early on in the book 2 men are thrown into her investigation who will be the first friends she's ever known. She grapples with a fast-paced art theft/forgery investigation as she learns about & struggles with the concept of friendship. I couldn't put it down & immediately upon finishing it got the sequel " The Dante Connection,"
What do You think about The Gauguin Connection (2000)?
I can see this book made into a television series. Enjoyable.
—steph
