Canaletto and the Case of the Westminster Bridge. By Janet Laurence.
In history, Canaletto was one of the most famous painters of scenic views of the 18th century, and Janet Laurence uses his visit to England in 1746 to provide an equally scenic landscape of the London of that time.
Canaletto came to England to rebuild his career by offering English landscapes to his English patrons. Laurence complicates his life by embroiling him in a domestic squabble, an arranged marriage between a cash-strapped aristocrat and a social-climbing merchant, and an investigation of the delays behind the completion of the Westminster Bridge.
Laurence’s book about the painter-turned-detective creates a moderately sanitized portrait of London. While it’s obvious that she did her research, she also didn’t want to confuse the reader with too many details that might distract from the story.
Although it seems like there’s a lot going on, Laurence capably breezes through the plot and runs the story in circles, showing what’s going on and then showing the characters learning what we already know. The plot treads with the pace and inevitability of a sitcom, which everything resolved in the final pages.
Like Canaletto’s painting which graces the cover — and which figures in the plot — Laurence shows us everything, but one wishes there were more to see.
Related Posts :
I can’t scan this in so you’ll have to go over to Ray Bank’s site to look at his great cover art for “Saturday&# ...
It sounded like a good idea at the time: hire married writers Marcia Muller and Bill Prozini to compile 25 short-stories featuring, as t ...
Lloyd Grove's column has the details:Dalia Gal claims in a lawsuit that Clark's book, "The Second Time Around," recycled the plot, key s ...
James Winter is discussing his favorite band. I don't have a dog in this fight, however. I've always been an ELO fan.
Over at this bulletin board came the inspired idea that Garfield is funnier if you remove all of the cat's dialog and thoughts. For exa ...
