Charlotte & Aaron Elkins: A Dangerous Talent (An Alix London Mystery)

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Entertaining but not challenging mystery
The art world is a mystery to me so this mystery about the art world was a good but not a challenging read for me. It features Alix London, an up and coming art consultant, whose a father who served time for art forgery and fraud.

While Alix is still hurting from what happened to her father, she is still working in the field he helped her to know and love - art appreciation and restoration. Out of the blue she is asked by Chris, a dotcom millionaire, to assess the authenticity of a a very expensive painting she is planning to buy. They travel to Santa Fe to check out the painting at a gallery owned by a long-time friend of Chris. Within a few hours of their arrival an attempt is made on Alix's life and Chris's gallery-owning friend is murdered.

They are immediately suspicious of an apparently wealthy art investor who had been seen with the gallery owner that afternoon. They do not know that he is an undercover agent from the FBI Art Fraud Squad following up several sales of forged paintings from that gallery.

Alix is convinced that the painting is forged but cannot substantiate her feelings. I trying to find out more, Alix and Chris they are nearly killed in a major auto accident.

I found the book to generally be an easy reading mystery but was not as challenging or tightly written as the mysteries I normally read. From the ending it is clear that we will see more adventures of Alix London as an art consultant.