A Clean Canvas: A Lena Szarka Mystery by Elizabeth Mundy
Lena Szarka, a Hungarian cleaner, dusts off her detective skills when a masterpiece is stolen from a gallery she cleans with her cousin Sarika. But when Sarika goes missing too, accusations start to fly. Convinced her cousin is innocent, Lena sweeps her way through the secrets of the London art scene. With the evidence mounting against Sarika and the police on her trail, Lena needs to track down the missing painting if she is to clear her cousin. Embroiling herself in the sketchy world of thwarted talents, unpaid debts and elegant fraudsters, Lena finds that there’s more to this gallery than meets the eye.
My Thoughts
The story opens in an art gallery as sleuth Lena Szarka cleans up on the eve of an important exhibition. The owner, Pietro, is keen to offload a painting he acquired and he hopes his exhibition will attract buyers. The artist has flown in and arrives in an inebriated state. Her painting, A Study in Purple, attracts three potential buyers. But before the new owner can take the painting home, it is stolen. What ensues is a thoroughly engaging tale filled with twists and turns as Lena pits her wits against a less than helpful police force and takes it upon herself to solve the crime, not least because her cousin, Sarika, is the prime suspect.
The narrative voice is light and warm, and the story bounces along at a fair clip. The mystery genre contains strict criteria and Mundy adheres to them all. A Clean Canvas ticks all the boxes of a good cosy mystery, not least with her endearing and pleasingly unlikely sleuth. Peppered with wit and ironic observations to make the reader smile, Mundy crafts her characters and scenes with much affection and a healthy dollop of social observation. Satisfying descriptions provide an adequate sense of place and help control the pacing. The ending, naturally, comes as a surprise. In all, this is an entertaining page turner that provides Agatha Raisin with some strong competition.
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Author Bio –
Elizabeth Mundy’s grandmother was a Hungarian immigrant to America who raised five children on a chicken farm in Indiana. An English Literature graduate from Edinburgh University, Elizabeth is a marketing director for an investment firm and lives in London with her messy husband and two young children. A Clean Canvas is the second book in the Lena Szarka mystery series about a Hungarian cleaner who turns detective.
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