The Trouble with Mirrors by Charlotte Elkins and Aaron Elkins ~ Review

Title: The Trouble with Mirrors (Alix London #4)
Author: Charlotte Elkins, Aaron Elkins
Genre: Adult, Mystery
Length: 256 pages
Publisher: Thomas and Mercer
Source: Goodreads
Reviewed by: Jasmyn

Alix London, the art restorer and FBI consultant renowned as the Art Whisperer, can spot a counterfeit masterpiece before the paint even dries. What she can’t see is why an elite European art dealer would offer her big money for a little mirror that’s no more than a homemade gift from her beloved uncle Tiny. Not that Alix would part with it at any price. But when the mirror is abruptly stolen from her home, she realizes that someone sees more in the looking glass than mere sentimental value.

When her uncle Tiny disappears mysteriously just after the mirror is stolen, the simple art theft becomes a personal and professional challenge Alix can’t ignore. With backup from her friends in the FBI, her game-for-anything pal Chris, and an aging-but-dogged Italian police detective, she delves into the puzzling case, only to find that there is much more to this theft than meets the eye. Once the Mafia shows up on the scene, Alix’s mission becomes a do-or-die race to find the one possible man with all the answers.

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The Trouble with Mirrors ties up a lot of loose ends in Alix London's life - many of which revolve around her "Uncle" Tiny. When a treasured mirror that Tiny had gifted her is stolen, it opens a door to an old international art scandal. Leave it to Alex to find herself right in the middle of it all.

Using her "Art Whisperer" intuition and her extensive knowledge of everything art related (which was a bit over the top because you can't be an expert in all of it - there's just too much.) This was far more exciting and thrilling than the past books in the series. There's mafia, Italian police, FBI, and all of Alix's crew back home. Each group with their own objectives and ways to accomplish them.

In the end, we have a tad bit rushed reveal and another case solved by Alix and her friends. This book stood out more as a group effort to solve the case, involving all of Alix's friends and family. This appears to be the last book in the Alix London series so far, but I'd definitely read more if they are written.

*I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of this book*

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The Art Whisperer by Charlotte Elkins and Aaron Elkins

Title: The Art Whisperer (Alix London #3)

Author: Charlotte Elkins, Aaron Elkins

Genre: Adult, Mystery

Length: 260 pages

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

Release Date: August 19, 2014

Source: Purchased

Reviewed by: Jasmyn

When art conservator Alix London spots a forgery, she knows trouble will follow. So she’s understandably apprehensive when her connoisseur’s eye spots something off about a multimillion-dollar Jackson Pollock painting at Palm Springs’s Brethwaite Museum—her current employer.

Alix is already under fire, the object of a vicious online smear campaign. Now the Brethwaite’s despicable senior curator, obsessed with the “maximization of monetized eyeballs,” angrily refuses to decommission the celebrated Pollock piece. But it’s only when a hooded intruder attacks Alix in her hotel room that the real trouble begins. And when FBI Special Agent Ted Ellesworth—with whom Alix had inadvertently, but thoroughly, botched a budding relationship just a year prior—turns up to investigate the Pollock, Alix knows she’s about to have her hands full.

In her third mystery, Alix London must see through mirages in the desert to uncover the knotted history of the painting—and save herself in the process.

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Alix London is making a reputation for herself as the "Art Whisperer," capable of telling if a painting is authentic or not by just looking at it. And her intuition is never wrong, it might just take her a little while to prove it. This reputation is getting her in trouble this time. She's being targeted online by a smear campaign, and it's strangely tied to her new job at a small museum.

She's determined to save her reputation and find out who is behind the attacks. But she'll end up needing some help on this one, and she's not sure exactly what her relationship with FBI Agen Ted Ellesworth is anymore. Which is another minefield that she will need to navigate.

I really enjoy how the mysteries in the series build off each other. The characters are dynamic from book to book, and their growth and development adds to the storyline and enhances the mystery and sleuthing as we go on. I'm also learning a bit about art, and I love how the authors tie it all together is such great stories.

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A Cruise to Die for by Charlotte and Aaron Elkins

Title: A Cruise to Die For (Alix London #2)

Author: Charlotte Elkins, Aaron Elkins

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Length: 256 pages

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

Release Date: September 3, 2013

Source: Purchased

Reviewed by: Jasmyn

This should be the cushiest job Alix London’s ever had.

The second Alix London mystery finds the art restorer in a world brimming with idle luxury, spectacular locations, and deadly intrigue.

Surrounded by art and wealth and the sun-drenched Greek isles, she’s aboard a sumptuous mega-yacht with no responsibilities save the occasional lecture to the guests of her temporary employer, Panos Papadakis, one of the world's richest men. But there’s a catch: Papadakis has long been suspected of being at the center of a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme and Alix is actually there as an undercover operative of FBI special agent Ted Ellesworth, a member of the Bureau’s Art Crime Team. They hope Alix can gather the inside information they need to finally put the cagey Papadakis away.

Alix’s exposure to the enormous wealth of high-end collectors and the shadier aspects of the art trade—the avarice, naked greed, and ingenious scams—somehow brings her closer to her charming, "reformed" rogue of a father, and helps crystalize in her own mind just where she fits into the mix.

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When FBI agent Ted Ellesworth asks Alix to help be his eyes and ears during an art auction on a luxury yacht, it seems more like a vacation than a job. Elkins did a great job showing the luxury and decadence of the Greek tycoon's yacht and captures some of the very unique personalities on board very well.

What she finds instead is a possible counterfeit, maybe a murder, and a stream of finances that just isn't adding up. Once again she's neck deep in a mystery involving the high-end art world. This one was a little more convoluted than the first with lots of hands in the pot and tangled webs wrapping around things.

One of the best things about the series so far - I don't figure it out halfway through. There are enough hints that point me in a general direction, but the big reveal only happens when Alix and her "crew" all get together and share their collective information. The fact that it takes the entire team to figure out all the details in the end only makes things better.

The ending of this was quite intense though. More so than I expected, but it kept me on the edge of my seat until the last page.

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A Dangerous Talent by Charlotte and Aaron Elkins ~ Review

Title: A Dangerous Talent (Alix London #1)

Author: Charlotte Elkins and Aaron Elkins

Genre: Adult, Cozy Mystery

Length: 270 pages

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

Release Date: March 6. 2012

Source: Purchased

Reviewed by: Jasmyn

Alix London has a promising career as an art consultant, a sumptuous condo in Seattle’s toniest neighborhood, a gorgeous figure, and a presence that exudes Ivy League breeding and old money. She has it all…or does she? Only Alix knows that the image she presents to the world is a carefully constructed mirage that veils an embarrassing truth. A brilliant, once-promising art student, the daughter of a prominent New York art conservator, her world was left in ruins when her father went to prison for art forgery. Now a Harvard dropout with an emptied bank account, she is languishing in a career that has produced little more than a lucky house-sitting gig. But all of that changes when Alix meets Christine Lemay, a novice art collector with money to burn and a hot tip on a recently discovered painting by American master Georgia O’Keeffe. Chris hires Alix to perform the authentication, an assignment that finally could launch Alix into the big leagues. But soon after her arrival in Santa Fe, she finds herself tangled up in a web of forgery, deceit—and murder. Anxious to avoid becoming the next victim, she teams up with FBI Special Agent Ted Ellesworth—and gets a little unlikely help from her roguish father—to uncover the truth behind the painting and those who would kill to have it. Sharp, witty, and devilishly fun, A Dangerous Talent offers an insider’s look into the surprisingly treacherous contemporary art world.

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A Dangerous Talent was a really fun read. I won't vouch for the accuracy of the artistic facts, I'm not an expert in that area. However, the main character, Alix London, is. Alix has an interesting history in the art world, and it's a history that doesn't really help her reputation. With a father convicted for forgery, she's had a hard time finding clients that will trust her.

But she does have a few, and the newest one, Christine Lemay, has decided she just must have a Georgia O'Keefe. And so begins Alix's first trip into mystery and mayhem. Chris and Alix are a great team. Chris is the loud and wonderfully outrageous woman that doesn't care what anyone thinks, and is a nice balance to Alix's much more conservative nature.

A simple trip to view and authenticate Chris's painting turns out to involve a dead body, an explosion, and an FBI agent. With a great mix of mystery and action, and maybe the beginnings of something with a certain hunky guy. This may not top the list of all-time favorites, but A Dangerous Talent was something I was very happy to stumble upon. 

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