The Black Painting

by Neil Olson

An enthralling well-written mystery for readers who enjoyed The Keeper of Lost Things and The Improbability of Love.

A dead body. A family torn apart. Someone is lying.

Years ago, a forgotten Goya masterpiece was stolen from Teresa's family home, a crumbling mansion at Owl's Point. Ever since, Teresa has stayed away, terrified of the rumours surrounding the Black Painting and the jealous accusations that tore apart her family.

Now her grandfather has summoned his descendants back to the mansion to discuss his will, and Teresa knows she has no choice except to return. But when she arrives, she finds the door hanging open and her grandfather dead, his eyes open and staring at the empty space where the Goya once hung.

Someone in the family is lying, but will Teresa unravel the mystery of the missing painting before it is too late?

• ISBN10: 148925126X
• ISBN13: 9781489251268
• Publish Date: 1 January 2018
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: AU
• Imprint: HQ Fiction
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[pamela]

I noped my way out of The Black Painting at 50%. I think I would have enjoyed it more had I read it, but the Audio Book was a hard no for me. The narrator didn't spark my interest, and the story meandered too much to really benefit from the format.

The premise of The Black Painting sounded promising. I do love Goya's work, and the idea of a cursed painting tickled me. But 50% of the way through there was minimal discussion about the art, and way too much time spent with one-dimensional characters. And don't even get me started on the way the women are written. There are no strong female characters, and I was constantly distracted by the fact that the female characters were objectified, and far too often described in terms of their breasts.

Add to that a stream of rhetorical questions from the protagonist, Teresa, and repetitive settings and characterisation, and there was just no way I could bring myself to finish it. Definitely interested to know if the physical reading experience is any different, but the Audio Book is undoubtedly not a recommendation from me.