«Sisters at an Exhibition»: A Mystery of Art, Provenance, and Memory
Claudia Hagadus Long's new novel follows a private investigator and her sister into the world of art fraud, where a disputed Caravaggio drawing leads them from California to France and into the shadows of Holocaust history.
In the world of high-stakes art, authenticity is everything — and a single disputed drawing can unravel reputations, fortunes, and even family histories. Claudia Hagadus Long explores this precarious terrain in her latest mystery novel, «Sisters at an Exhibition», a brisk and intelligent addition to her series featuring the Persil-Pendleton sisters.
The story centers on Zara Persil-Pendleton, a private investigator in Alameda, California, whose practice typically handles employment-related cases but who maintains a particular sideline in the museum world, specializing in the provenance of Judaica-related works. Zara's connection to this heritage is deeply personal: she is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor who concealed her Jewish identity after the war, a legacy that grows increasingly significant to her as the plot unfolds. Her investigative partner is her sister Lilly, a self-described wine aunt whose enthusiasm for their shared heritage is considerably more muted than Zara's.
The sisters' latest case begins when a Bay Area museum makes a substantial investment in a drawing attributed to Caravaggio — a study connected to his renowned work «Judith and Holofernes». The acquisition quickly turns contentious when a news report declares the drawing spurious, prompting museum administrators to hire Zara to determine the truth. What follows is a chain of escalating complications: an art authenticator suspected of lying about the drawing's authenticity vanishes, the drawing itself disappears, and a museum donor appears to be complicit in the fraud.
Long propels her protagonists from the Bay Area to New York City and ultimately to eastern France, where the current case threatens to intersect with a deeply painful family history. In the Alsatian setting, the investigation may overlap with the murder of Lilly's boyfriend's family during the Holocaust, adding a layer of historical gravity to the contemporary art-world intrigue. The novel's third act, set in this region, introduces a welcome novelty that distinguishes the book from its predecessors in the series.
The dynamic between the sisters is one of the novel's chief pleasures. Long presents Zara and Lilly as a classic and exquisitely funny sister act — one blond, one brunette, one borderline-fussy, the other a bon vivant. Their banter and contrasting temperaments provide both levity and emotional depth, grounding the mystery in a believable sibling relationship. Long also demonstrates a notable gift for writing about food, approaching meals with the enthusiasm of a lifelong student of menus, which adds texture to the sisters' travels.
The novel's primary weakness lies in its relationship to its companion volumes. As narrator, Zara must frequently jog readers' memories about events from earlier mysteries, walking them through what sound like engaging tales in their own right — but the constant recapitulation can slow the narrative's momentum. Readers new to the series may find themselves wishing for less exposition and more forward motion, while returning readers may feel the reminders are unnecessary.
Despite these touches of heaviness, «Sisters at an Exhibition» remains escapist yet intelligent, a combination that should appeal to devoted mystery fans and newcomers alike. The novel engages with questions of authenticity, inheritance, and the moral weight of the past without sacrificing the pleasures of a well-constructed puzzle. For readers interested in the intersection of art, history, and family memory, Long's latest installment offers a satisfying and thought-provoking journey.
