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Anne Cartier #4
Lethal Beauty
Lethal Beauty, set in 1787 at the Louvre in Paris, opens with a ghastly discovery. At the biennial exhibition of paintings and sculptures, the portrait of a recently deceased countess is vandalized. Its painter accuses a colleague, who is soon stabbed to death. Anne Cartier is drawn to investigate the crime by her deaf friend Michou, a pupil of the murdered man. The circle of suspects widens to include the countess's elderly husband, the Comte de Serre, who had commissioned the portrait. Yet another suspect is an Italian art dealer, who may have known the countess too well and has reasons both to love and to hate her. But at the centre of the mystery is a master extortionist ensnaring the participants. Anne, her husband Colonel Paul de Saint-Martin, and his adjutant Georges Charpentier pursue the investigation from the Louvre's apartments and studios into the streets and sewers of Paris and beyond, to the count's country estate near Fontainebleau.
239 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2005
8 people want to read
About the author
Charles O'Brien
29 books18 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
The Columbia University educated historian embarked on his mystery writing career in 1988, six years before he retired from the WIU history department. O'Brien's wife Elvy, an art historian, had moved to Williamstown, VA, after accepting a position with the J. Paul Getty Trust, then at the Clark Art Institute. That began a series of long commutes for O'Brien.
"I wanted to make use of time on board (trains and planes) and in airports. Many of my fellow passengers were reading crime novels. I thought why not exploit my fund of historical settings and write a historical mystery," O'Brien explained. "The idea of 'Mute Witness' blossomed in the air between Albany and Chicago."
When O'Brien retired in 1994 after 22 years of teaching at Western, he began to seriously study the art of writing fiction with colleague Tama Baldwin of the WIU English faculty.
The Columbia University educated historian embarked on his mystery writing career in 1988, six years before he retired from the WIU history department. O'Brien's wife Elvy, an art historian, had moved to Williamstown, VA, after accepting a position with the J. Paul Getty Trust, then at the Clark Art Institute. That began a series of long commutes for O'Brien.
"I wanted to make use of time on board (trains and planes) and in airports. Many of my fellow passengers were reading crime novels. I thought why not exploit my fund of historical settings and write a historical mystery," O'Brien explained. "The idea of 'Mute Witness' blossomed in the air between Albany and Chicago."
When O'Brien retired in 1994 after 22 years of teaching at Western, he began to seriously study the art of writing fiction with colleague Tama Baldwin of the WIU English faculty.
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