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There's a little bit of everything in THE POT THIEF WHO STUDIED GEORGIA O'KEEFFE except graphic violence. The book is set in New Mexico, and both Old Town Albuquerque and the barren landscape of the Trinity Site at the White Sands Missile Range are well described. The reader comes away from the book with a better understanding of the Native American history of the area, Georgia O'Keeffe's personal life, interracial relationships, Spanish and French language peculiarities, immigration policies, and even the WWII Bataan Death March. The author, J. Michael Orenduff, manages to incorporate all these topics and more without becoming overly didactic. The humor is sometimes laugh-out-loud in nature, and at others more simply amusing. But the tone remains light throughout the book, adding to the pleasure of reading this 7th in the Pot Thief Mystery series.
Hubie Schuze is a dealer in Native American pots, many of which he releases from their buried locations in rural New Mexico. Some would consider him a thief, but he views his profitable archaeological endeavors as a means for uniting long-forgotten relics with new owners who cherish them. His shop is full of pots that he loves himself until he can find the right (rich) new lovers for them. As this book opens, Hubie has found someone to rent the store next to his and to help watch his own store when he needs to be away searching for a new pot for which he has received a "commission." While he's gone to White Sands for the search, the middle man in the sale is murdered. A complicated and twisted plot involves highly-priced pots and forgeries turning up and disappearing repeatedly. At the same time, Hubie's close friend comes into possession of an unsigned Georgia O'Keeffe canvas, and the search to determine the provenance of the canvas intersects loosely with the attempt to find the murderer.
There is very little detective work described in the book. Rather, the focus is on the confusion caused by the same pot showing up in different places or disappearing from the expected places. In spite of Hubie's dubious activities, he has friends in the police force, FBI, and media and they all seem to cooperate with ease. Over and over, suspicion is cast upon characters who turn out to have only the best, even altruistic, motives. Although he is in financial difficulties, Hubie gives money away freely when he gets some in hand. The villain plays such a minor role in the book that the murder hardly casts a shadow on all the goodness of Hubie and his circle of friends. This adds to the lightness of the book and the pleasure of reading it, but it does require a bit of suspension of disbelief.
This book caught my attention because of the Georgia O'Keeffe connection, and it is the first I've read in the series. The tone of the book makes it clear, however, that books in this series would be ideal palate cleansers between darker mysteries. I will be back for more.
§ Sharon Mensing is the Head of School of Emerald Mountain School, an independent school in the mountains of Colorado, where she lives, reads, and enjoys the outdoors.
Reviewed by Sharon Mensing, February 2016
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