Apologies to the author, but my first comment has to be on the terrible transition of this novel from print to digital. Open Road Integrated Media publishing hasn't done Mr. Elkins any favors, and owes him (and the buyers / readers) a serious update with corrections of this 2014 digital edition. I can only guess that it was read into the system and auto-written, and that the reader's pronunciation of anything that ended in '-ly' was blurry, because the majority of the spelling errors happen on those words. Additionally (or additionady, as it might appear in this edition!) there are some bizarre spacing issues, with large blank spots intruding in the middle of sentences and paragraphs for no clear reason.
And now, to the book.
This is the second Elkins mystery I've read, the first being the much more recently written "A Dangerous Talent" (an Alix London mystery). "A Deceptive Clarity" suffers in comparison to Mr. Elkins maturation as a writer and I'll confess that if I had read it first I probably wouldn't read any more of his novels. However, now that I've seen how his writing has developed, I think that I'll keep going with the C. Norgren series.
Chris Norgren is sort of a classic, accidental sleuth and he's likeable enough, but doesn't always seem very bright. The characters around him are interesting in a one dimensional, TV sit-com kind of way and more than once I found myself drifting into a re-run of M*A*S*H or Columbo, with quirky military personnel and shuffling detectives. In an apparent effort to create a vivid and comprehensive world, quickly, the reader is introduced to many, many people who may or may not play a part in the final solution to the mystery.
The story itself centers around the world of fine art and museums, scholarship and curation. Clearly, Mr. Elkins knows a lot about this area, and he puts tons of information into his first book. Too much for my taste, even though I've got a real interest in this subject and know something more than average about it myself. There are times when he gets involved in minutiae which, while technically relevant, does nothing to advance the story. If I had to choose, I would have preferred to get to know some of the characters better and skip over a little of the fine detail about obscure artworks.
The mystery itself is an interesting tangle, and believable once you get your head into the world of people who own very expensive artwork, or curate it. But for all of the detail in the book, I never found myself 'in' this story. However, because I felt differently about his more recent writing, 30 years on, I kept going.
There are murders, explosions, lies and deception, blind alleys, red herrings, and all of the other makings of a good mystery. Yet I still felt myself standing outside of the story, and ready for it to just finish. I'll read the next two, but if they're like this one I suspect that my conclusion will be that Mr. Elkins should come in and do a "Reader's Digest" editing job and turn them into a three novella trilogy with the C. Norgren character, and chalk it up to a youthful learning experience.
A good airplane or beach read, but not a great one.
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![A Deceptive Clarity (The Chris Norgren Mysteries Book 1) by [Aaron Elkins]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51v8dq-71vL._SY346_.jpg)
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Enjoyable read
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Classic who done it
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