Caravaggio's Angel (Hardcover)

by Ruth Brandon (Author)
Key Phrases: Antoine Rigaut, Monsieur Rigaut, Madame Rigaut (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Art, war, love and loss all figure in Brandon's enjoyable first in a series featuring art historian Reggie Lee. Recently hired by London's National Gallery, Reggie gets the approval of the museum's director to exhibit a 1605 Caravaggio altarpiece, St. Cecilia and the Angel, along with the two copies the artist made, one of which is at the Getty, the other at the Louvre. When Antoine Rigaut, the Louvre's Italian collection administrator, refuses the loan, Reggie travels to Paris to confront Rigaut, who proves elusive and later turns up dead, an apparent suicide. Reggie eventually locates Riguat's elderly mother, a remarkable woman who holds the key to the complex history of the Louvre's copy of St. Cecilia and the Angel, which was stolen and soon after recovered in 1937. When a third copy of the painting surfaces, Reggie really has her work cut out for her. Brandon is the author of Surreal Lives: The Surrealists, 1917–1945 and other works of nonfiction. (Oct.)
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Product Description

Dr. Reggie Lee, new at London's National Gallery, is planning a small exhibition of three almost identical Caravaggio paintings when she discovers a fourth. One must be a forgery. That discovery detonates multiple murders. Like Flavia di Stefano in Iain Pears' art history mysteries, Reggie is attractive, knowledgeable when it comes to art, and percipient when it comes to people with motives to defraud.

Ruth Brandon divides her time between London and France. She is working on the second title in this series. She previously published Surreal Lives: The Surrealists, 19171945, a work of nonfiction.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Soho Constable (October 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569475199
• ISBN-13: 978-1569475195
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #487,408 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Crisp and interesting, March 10, 2009

By	M. Frager "Constant Reader" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Brandon is a new name to me, but having read the first Reggie Lee mystery, "Caravaggio's Angel" I will be back for more. It's especially nice to read an 'amateur sleuth' mystery in which the sleuthing believably derives from the main character's work and there is no copper involved.

The book has a brisk, no nonsense quality yet the telling is flavored with the human qualities that make a story worth reading - career, politics, sex, human misbehavior, and in this series' case, art-ful crime. The settings are sophisticated, the atmosphere intelligent, the writing fluid, and the plot fast-moving. I was surprised several times and liked the structure of the ending.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent art mystery , October 12, 2008

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The Director of the London National Gallery approves art historian Reggie Lee's concept to display three "original" works of artist Caravaggio, who created in 1605 the altarpiece St. Cecilia and the Angel and subsequently made two copies. She knows that the Getty and the Louvre each have one and assumes it should prove no problem to find the third.

Shockingly, Louvre Italian masterpiece administrator Antoine Rigaut refuses to loan the museum's copy. Since lending is a normal practice, Reggie goes to Paris to plead her case in person with Rigaut. However, he avoids her like she has the plague until he is found dead, an apparent suicide. Reggie is further stunned when a seemingly fourth copy surfaces. This makes her believe one of the originals is a fake; perhaps created in 1937 when the Louvre copy was recovered after being stolen. When the English expert meets Rigaut's mother, she begins to learn the true early twentieth century history of St. Cecilia and the Angel.

CARAVAGGIO'S ANGEL is an excellent art mystery starring a likable protagonist who goes from art historian to amateur sleuth in her efforts to learn the truth. The story line is fast-paced with the historical aspects adding a terrific taste of the early seventeenth century art world and the not so rare museum thefts of the early twentieth century from a modern perspective. Ruth Brandon provides a wonderful thriller that hopefully will lead to more blending of masterpieces with mysteries.

Harriet Klausner

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional, June 6, 2009

By	Ginny (Martha's Vineyard) - See all my reviews

This is one of the finest mysteries, or book in any genre, that I've read in a long, long time. Characters are well developed, engaging and intelligent as well as clever and the plot is not only believable but intricate and carefully worked out. I read British mysteries almost non stop and predict that Ruth Brandon will shortly achieve a place right up there with the best writers (maybe even the golden era stars such as Dorothy Sayers, Michael Innes, and Edmund Crispin) of today -- the likes of PD James, Robert Barnard, Peter Lovesey . I particularly liked this because it is edgy without being noir and doesn't involve some grisly topic like serial killers/child molesters/burned out squats/masochistic drug dealers and similar.