Review: "The Mystery of the Lost Cézanne," by M. L. Longworth

When I was a kid, there were books I wanted to live in. The most important of these was Harriet the Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh. I must have read that book a dozen times between the ages of 10 and 12. Alas, my efforts to follow in Harriet’s sneaky footsteps came to naught, because, while she lived in Manhattan, I lived in suburban Massachusetts, where anyone walking around with a flashlight and notebook would prompt a call to the police.

I’d seldom experienced this desire as an adult. Then I was introduced to the Verlaque and Bonnet mysteries.

Now I want to live in Aix-en-Provence. I want to walk in Cézanne’s footsteps. Count me in at the Bar Zola, and Michaud’s patisserie. Let me roam around the nearby Luberon, with its vineyards, its villages perched on hillsides. I want to be within driving distance of Marseille.

That’s the effect these mysteries have on me. They take me away.

The latest in M. L. Longworth’s series, The Mystery of the Lost Cézanne, obviously does not disappoint. It begins with the January celebration of “La Fête des Rois” (the feast of the kings). Judge Antoine Verlaque is in line at Michaud’s to buy the traditional “galette des rois,” which, in his typically cantankerous way, he doesn’t really like. The patisserie, which has been in business for over a century, turns out to be at the center of the puzzle, which features Aix’s most famous son.

In real life, Paul Cézanne was rumored to have had an affair with an ordinary Aixoise in the late 1800s. Chapters that imaginatively describe the artist’s blossoming relationship with the sister of one of his best friends are interwoven with the present-day adventures of Verlaque, Marine Bonnet and their friends and family. Cézanne and his friend talk about painting, Paris, and life. They share bread, goat cheese and salami in the forested hills above the city. Who was this woman? Did Cézanne paint her?

The mystery comes to light when Verlaque is asked to visit a retired postal clerk, who has found a rolled-up canvas in his apartment. The building was Cézanne’s last address in Aix. Before the judge arrives, however, the postal clerk is murdered and the painting disappears. The missing work of art, which is later recovered, might be a Cézanne. But if it is, who is the woman in the picture? It’s not the po-faced Madame Cézanne.

Verlaque and Bonnet, his law professor girlfriend, are determined to get to the truth. Bonnet enlists the help of her father, a physician with a special interest in the artist. Verlaque finds himself dealing with an American art professor, Rebecca Schultz, and he can’t decide whether she’s friend or foe.

Police Commissioner Bruno Paulik is, of course, on hand; as is Bonnet’s friend, Sylvie. Verlaque’s cigar club plays an important role.

Meanwhile, love is in the air, as Bonnet ponders the future, and Verlaque’s father begins an unlikely relationship.

I enjoyed my stay with these friends, and my travels with them. At the affineur in Aix, I met André, who has three cellars for his cheeses. Can’t you just smell the pecorino laced with black truffle?