St. Just #6
I’m a huge fan of G.M. Malliet, who writes in a classic, golden age style, right down to the length of her novels. Like the masters of the genre who came before her, she keeps her books on the shorter side. With their sharp prose and quick but indelible characterizations, authors like Christie, Marsh, and Tey got their stories told in a much briefer manner than we are now accustomed to. I have a dear bookseller friend who insists that you should be able to settle in after dinner, say, and finish up your read that evening. That is indeed possible with a Malliet book. She shares the dry humor of her foremothers, as well as their clever way with a puzzle.
In this novel, her detective, Inspector St. Just, is called over to the Oxford University campus when the body of a professor is found murdered in his residence. His body was found by the porter (shades of Dorothy L. Sayers). The dead man, Sir Flyte Rascallian, was a world-renowned art historian with a particular expertise in Rembrandt. He’d recently helped an aged aunt clear out her home, and she’d pressed a package of small paintings on him, saying his uncle wanted him to have them.
Sir Flyte hadn’t looked at the paintings but when he does, among the amateur landscapes, he finds one that seems particularly engaging. The paintings disappear after his death, so the thought that this one painting might actually have been a lost Rembrandt enters the minds of the investigators.
In true golden age style, the pool of suspects is a small one: a particularly bitter and well-regarded women’s studies professor; her daughter, a recent Oxford drop out; a louche, wealthy American doing graduate studies in art history; and an acquaintance of everyone in the book, an art dealer who was helping the woman professor to assemble a show of women artists. There’s another death and while it seems certain the two must be connected, it’s far from clear just how.
St. Just and his second, Fear, solidly peel away secrets of all involved and unearth a connection to the Monuments Men of WWII, who rescued art stolen and hidden by the Nazis. This background plot line really takes a back seat to the personalities and complex relationships that are the foundation of the novel. Malliet’s way with prose, pacing and character make these books wonderful and intelligent reads. This is the kind of novel I can’t put down, and it’s also the kind I can finish in an evening, sad that it’s over and that I now must wait for the next book. –Robin Agnew