I’ll admit, this is one of those books where I can’t tell if it started dragging because I was getting slogged down in all the technical art study and theory, or if it started dragging because I had half a dozen other books I wanted to pick up. (That half a dozen other books always seems more tempting when the book you’re reading has a deadline…)
Disregarding those moments where I really felt like I was slogging (and I admit, I started skimming through those sections just to keep pace), the book was pretty good. I definitely had a moment of doubt in the middle where I thought perhaps our main character, Paulien/Vivienne, may have actually been the murderer. (Sometimes I think I try to outwit the author by suspecting things like perhaps the narrator is not trustworthy… I blame Agatha Christie for all my suspicion at this point.)
As a CH Armchair Detective Society book, our discussion was somewhat interesting as the overall consensus seemed to be that it was mostly that was just couldn’t get attached to any one character. None of them were quite likable enough to really give us someone to root for. We also wished that some of the paintings, like Matisse’s The Joy of Life were printed right in the book so that we could see what it looked like when we were reading the descriptions.
Overall on the rating scale, I give this about a 6 out of 10. There were moments where I really liked B. A. Shapiro’s writing and other moments where it just didn’t make up for what was lacking in the characters.