Murder at the National Gallery of Art by Margaret Truman

First sentence:

"Who was Mattia Preti anyway?"


Description:

"What happens when a world-class art expert wants not only to exhibit a long-lost painting by Caravaggio but also to own it?

Margaret Truman takes us into a heady exciting world of genius with this story of a senior curator at the nation's famed National Gallery of Art who plans a brilliant exhibition around the masterpiece. He also begins to make a more personal and daring plan. His masterly scheme promises prestige, fame, a small fortune, plus a number of artful deceptions and a disappearing act that will rival the story of the painting itself.

But circumstances intervene in the form of a demanding son, a more demanding and ambitious mistress, an unscrupulous collector, persons suddenly dead, and the fact that Annabel Reed-Smith is asked by her ex-college roommate, now the vice president's wife, to keep an eye on things at the Gallery and the coming exhibition." -- from Amazon.com

My thoughts:

I like this mystery set in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and in Italy.  There were a lot of twists that kept me guessing throughout the book.

Date read: 4/11/2015
Book #:7
Series: Capitol Crimes, #13
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Mystery

ISBN-10: 0449219380
ISBN-13: 978-0449219386
Publisher: Fawcett
Year: 1997
# of pages: 386
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
LibraryThing page

Call the Midwife: Shadows of the Workhouse by Jennifer Worth

First sentence:

"Nonnatus House was both a convent and the working base for the nursing and midwifery services of the Sisters of St Raymund Nonnatus."

Description:

When twenty-two-year-old Jennifer Worth, from a comfortable middle-class upbringing, went to work as a midwife in the direst section of postwar London, she not only delivered hundreds of babies and touched many lives, she also became the neighborhood's most vivid chronicler. Woven into the ongoing tales of her life in the East End are the true stories of the people Worth met who grew up in the dreaded workhouse, a Dickensian institution that limped on into the middle of the twentieth century.

Orphaned brother and sister Peggy and Frank lived in the workhouse until Frank got free and returned to rescue his sister. Bubbly Jane's spirit was broken by the cruelty of the workhouse master until she found kindness and romance years later at Nonnatus House. Mr. Collett, a Boer War veteran, lost his family in the two world wars and died in the workhouse.

Though these are stories of unimaginable hardship, what shines through each is the resilience of the human spirit and the strength, courage, and humor of people determined to build a future for themselves against the odds. This is an enduring work of literary nonfiction, at once a warmhearted coming-of-age story and a startling look at people's lives in the poorest section of postwar London." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I liked the second book in the Midwife Trilogy series. I especially liked how Jennifer learned to look past the conditions to engage with the people directly. I'm looking forward to reading the third book, Farewell to the East End.

Date read: 4/3/2015
Book #: 6
Series: Call the Midwife #2
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Memoir/History

ISBN-10: 0062270044
ISBN-13: 9780062270047
Publisher: HarperCollins
Year: 2005
# of pages: 293
Binding: Trade Paperback
LibraryThing page