An altercation on a bridge over an icy river ends in a
fatality and brings a woman to Sean Sean's PI office in
Minneapolis. He's just had a visit from a well-off, close-
mouthed man who wants him to find a lady friend. THE CASE
OF THE PURLOINED PAINTING is under way. The dead man,
Manfred Gottlieb, found amidst ice and debris on the
Mississippi River, had a concentration camp tattoo on his
arm. Could there be a link to his past?
Sean is in a relationship with a lady called Catherine
Mckerney and each of them starts to think they are being
followed. Catherine runs a massage therapy business so the
likelihood is that she is being watched because of her
association with Sean - and his cases. Then a solicitor
asks Sean to meet Aaron Gottleib, grandson of Manfred.
Aaron wants to know what a Polish man in his eighties was
doing out in a snowstorm, and the police aren't making
progress as to how he died. A list in German turns up,
which details Bauhaus sideboards and paintings by Raphael
and Monet. Now a glimmer of the truth begins to show, a
truth relating to confiscated artworks under the Nazi
regime. Is anyone being honest here? And how dangerous are
modern racists?
I found the author being a little heavy on descriptive
words - one client pays Sean in notes which carry Benjamin
Franklin's picture. Since this isn't my currency this
doesn't tell me anything. Catherine has better computer
skills than Sean, so she protects their net searches from
data trackers, and reasonable advice is passed along in
this way. However I doubted that Sean would 'almost never
use the internet' as most PIs find out copious amounts
about clients, incidents and missing persons by net
searches.
Sean Sean comes across as a pleasant character, unassuming,
wary and cat-loving, true to his girlfriend, not padding
the expenses. He doesn't normally mix with the wealthy and
influential, but he treads carefully when he does. The
constant exposure to snow and ice on the streets makes THE
CASE OF THE PURLOINED PAINTING individual while tracing the
provenance of stolen art is well researched. Carl Brookins
has previously written a series of sailing mysteries along
with more crime stories, and I'd be interested to see what
his characters might get up to on the high seas. Try this
good-hearted thrilling PI story for starters.
When an American Army unit arrived at the end of the war,
some soldiers appropriated items in what appeared to be
abandoned circumstances. A small painting by a mid-level
Polish painter is used by an ex-GI to float a bank loan
which results in the founding of a manufacturing firm in
Minneapolis. Now the painting and the ledger become the
center of murderous attempts by the descendants of the
veteran to conceal the paintings journey. World-wide efforts
at repatriation of stolen art from WWII is a major ongoing
effort and the story links to that effort as international
operatives descend on the Twin Cities. Enter private
detective Sean Sean. He is a short but effective operative
who, unlike many PIs of the modern era, doesnt sleep around,
doesnt shoot people unnecessarily, and has many friends
among various local law enforcement agencies.
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