A Place of Safety

Trish Maguire #5

by Natasha Cooper

Barrister Trish Maguire needs all the time she can find to help her young half-brother adjust to life after the violent death of his mother. Sir Henry Buxford, an influential acquaintance, has other ideas. He asks Trish to investigate one of his private charities, a magnificent art collection built up before 1914 and lost for most of the twentieth century. Taking a crash course in the murkier aspects of the art world, Trish is determined to unlock the secrets she is sure are hidden somewhere in the collection. Her research takes her not only into the heart of an engrossing love story, but also the agonizing reality of life in the trenches of the First World War. She soon discovers a web of deceit that has spanned the decades since, catching all kinds of people in its filaments. Now, the innocent, the violent, and the victims all have to free themselves. And someone dies.

Genres: Crime, Fiction, Mystery

Paperback

First published July 7, 2003

About the author

aka N.J. Cooper, Kate Hatfield, Clare Layton, Daphne Wright.

Natasha Cooper was Chairman of the Crime Writers' Association in 2000/2001. She reviews books in THE TIMES, THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT and the NEW LAW JOURNAL. She is the author of, among others, FAULT LINES and PREY TO ALL.

Reviews

[Bob Gilbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

In London, lawyer investigates an art curator of wrong doing.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS.

Trish Maguire gets mixed up in the art world. She's asked to look into the curator for a non-profit art foundation. She uncovers a one-time art forger, now a curator, who's being blackmailed about his past.

Under threat of his children being harmed, the curator has to launder money by bidding on bogus art at auctions.

Turns out the hapless blackmail victim's kids go to the same school as David, Trish Maguire's young half-brother, whom she has taken in after his mother's murder.

David shows his growing attachment for Trish in several heroic acts (where he either confronts or tries to obstruct the curator, whom David only knows hates Trish.)

An interesting additional emotional element is the presence of Trish's dad, who does not know his own son, but is moved to start getting to know David when he witnesses the boy defending Trish at a school event (the curator is at the event, and thinks Trish has been shadowing him because she works for the blackmailer).

The in-the-moment story alternates w. a historical story -- the WWI love affair btw. a British nurse in France, and a Frenchman, whose art collection forms the basis for the modern-day art foundation run by the curator.

The modern-day story's plot is a bit outlandish -- that the blackmailer always uses his current target to reveal an embarrassing truth about someone, who will then become the blackmailer's next patsy.

But Cooper uses all the characters to touching effect. So many of them don't know vital things about the the people they love. (nurse never knows her lover's true occupation as an art thief; curator is capable of murder to defend his family; little David risks his life to investigate the rumored 'treasure' curator's storeroom, in order to free Trish from threats.)

[Pattie Cook · Rating 2 out of 5]

Natasha Cooper is a new author for me, and I was not impressed. Her style seemed raw, unfinished. The characters were not well developed and the dialogue was poor. Some of her facts were incorrect and poorly researched. I felt that Natasha Copper had not reviewed the entire novel prior to publication, as there were details about Helen that just didn't make sense.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Driven by strong characters, with an unusual narrative flow that reveals clues to multiple characters from different angles. Sharp and clever.

[Paula R C R. C. Readman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant, Well plotted, clear-drawn characters and a real page turn. I just wanted to read on.