Old Scores: A Chris Norgren Mystery

Seattle Art Museum curator Chris Norgren falls prey to the lure of a newly discovered Rembrandt in this third in a spirited series (after A Glancing Light ). He also topples head-first out of a second-story window, but the nasty fall is happily blunted by a conveniently located car. Acquiring art isn't usually perilous, but anything is possible when the work is in the care of French dealer Rene Vachey, notorious for passing off thefts as publicity stunts. Vachey has offered the Rembrandt--if it really is a Rembrandt--as a gift to Chris's museum, with a veritable spider's web of strings attached. He will, however, permit only a cursory viewing and explicitly forbids scientific authentication. Chris, adrift in France, far from the arms of his girl, feels pretty sure that the painting is the genuine article. But after Vachey is murdered, his claim to have found the Rembrandt in a junk shop suddenly seems dubious; moreover, his employees have excellent motives to dislike him, several art experts have been burned by his outrageous exploits, and he even has that old crime fiction favorite, a deadbeat son recently dunned out of his dad's dough in a suspect will. Elkins wields all this with indecent ease, keeping the laugh count high and imparting copious amounts of art lore along the way. Mystery Guild main selection. (May)