DEATH IN A GILDED FRAME

Murder and art mingle in the high-society community of fin-de-siècle Newport, Rhode Island, in Tichi’s mystery novel, the sixth in a series.

On July 1, 1899, Valentine “Val” and Roderick “Roddy” DeVere arrive in Newport for their fourth summer at their cottage, Drumcliffe. Ready for a season spent relaxing and navigating Gilded Age society, they receive an invitation to the opening reception for the Cuveen Gallery. That’s where they might meet the portrait painter everybody is whispering about: the mysterious André Cole, whom Roddy wishes to paint Val’s portrait. While attending the opening, they meet the gallery director and curator Warren Eccles, who seems intent upon getting the DeVeres to part with much of their money. Warned by a friend that Eccles previously had a reputation for art forgery, Val and Roddy return to the gallery to find Eccles murdered and stuffed inside a picture frame (“Framed… the man was framed”). Here, the murder investigation begins to unfold. Roddy (a lawyer) and Val (too inquisitive for her own good) try to figure out what happened to Eccles while attracting undue attention for their own discovery of the body. Tichi has done her research and seamlessly weaves her fictional characters into the very real historical world of Newport; Val attends a lunch hosted by the famous Alva Belmont and encounters the actress Ellen Terry, and the characters enjoy time at the Newport Casino. The author deftly exposes many of the conceits at the heart of this society—discriminatory comments regarding Val’s western origins illustrate the ingrained snobbery of the scene. A side-plot concerning a nameless young woman dying in a fire seems meant to highlight a callousness directed toward the non-wealthy, but in its handling the thread seems almost superfluous to the narrative, and its inclusion is a little confusing at times. Still, Val and Roddy remain excellent company.

A fast-paced historical romp for lovers of murder mysteries.