Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Lover’s Portrait by Jennifer Alderson

The Lover’s Portrait by Jennifer Alderson (Traveling Life Press, 2019) is the first Zelda Richardson mystery. Zelda Richardson was a website designer who burned out on the long days and monotonous work of the technology world. She gave up that life and moved to Amsterdam to start over. The portrayal of the Netherlands is one of the very best parts of the book. She manages to get a referral for an internship at the Amsterdam Historical Museum, which will give her an entrée to the advanced museum management program she wants to attend. The museum is working on an exhibition of unclaimed art from World War Two, hoping that the publicity will identify former owners who want their property returned to them.

A resident of Missouri appears to claim one of the paintings by an obscure artist, saying it was a portrait of her oldest sister by her artist boyfriend who did not survive the war. The museum congratulates her and themselves on linking the two until a resident of New York appears with her lawyer and documentation showing the painting belonged to her gallery owner grandfather.

Zelda became involved in researching the provenance of the painting and the backgrounds of the two claimants. The New York resident became so aggressive in her demands that Zelda began to wonder if another and more valuable painting was actually hidden underneath the visible one. She took it to the museum restoration specialist for examination, giving the author the opportunity to describe in considerable detail the technical aspects of assessing old paintings.

Several chapters of the book describe the desperation of the original owner in 1942 as he hid his collection of paintings from the Nazis and prepared to flee to safety.

This book is uneven. Parts are well done: the author thoroughly researched both relevant history and museum management and it shows. The characterization needs work, the portrayal of the original claimant from Missouri as a country bumpkin was unlikely, considering she was born and spent her early years in Germany. Likewise the hostile museum curator was extreme. The plot was not entirely credible, although the author explains in the notes section that European museums have held exhibitions of unclaimed art in order to find owners just as described.

Worth reading for the history, the description of museum operations, the technical aspects of painting evaluation, and the great portrayal of life in the Netherlands. For cozy readers.

·         Publisher: ‎ Traveling Life Press (April 15, 2019)

·         Language: ‎ English

·         Paperback: ‎ 302 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎ 9083001113

·         ISBN-13: ‎ 978-9083001111

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2022

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.