Hmmm, it’s one of the ancient Kindle Daily Deals buys. I’ve got back then a few books by Charlotte and Aaron Elkins and now from time to time, I bump into them. As I tend to be a stubborn creature, once I start reading them I usually finish. Thankfully they are not overly long, so I can read them in a day, skipping some of the more annoying passages.

This, funnily enough, is the first book in the series about Alix London. I already know the main characters in the series from the other two books I read a few years ago. Basically, Alix has a gift – she intuitively knows a fake painting from a real one. She just does. It does not work with all painters, she has to be somehow attuned to the painter’s creative process but works on the majority of the famous ones. She also has a family history she’d rather forget – her father turned out to be an art forger, got convicted and effectively devastated Alix’s youth.

In this first installment of the series, we meet Alix when she’s broke and desperately looking an in into the art world. Preferably to advise art collectors on what they should buy. She manages to land the first commission from an eccentric silicon valley nouveau riche, Christine Lemay. Together they travel to New Mexico to see a newly discovered painting of Georgia O’Keeffe that Leamy wants to buy. From here on we get a whole host of further improbabilities: under-cover FBI agent, numerous murder attempts, rich people, fast cars and insta love.

It really isn’t a good boo, the only thing I can say is that surprisingly it is a tad better than the next ones in the series. But that’s its only redeeming feature.

What was the worst crime book you read recently?

Photo by Violetta Kaszubowska @vkphotospace.com