Review of Missing

[Roisin Maguire]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Missing" by Roberta Samuels.]

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3 out of 5 stars

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<i>Missing</i> by Roberta Samuels is narrated by Barbara, an American woman who has purchased property in a small village in France for her and her partner, Sam, to spend their summers. While renovating their medieval-era home, she becomes fascinated with a famous modern artist’s connection to the village and discovers some of the artist’s works are missing. Along with Sam and their local friends, they set out to locate the art and restore it to its intended place in the village church.

As a lover of art history, the premise of this book drew me in immediately, and I really enjoyed the blending of history (the artist at the center of the book, Sonia Delaunay, was a real person) and fiction. It is clear that the author has a real knowledge of French culture, and this made the writing believable and brought the setting to life. However, I felt the characters lacked depth, and at times the descriptions of Barbara’s life in France seemed gratuitous. For a large portion of the book, it read more as the journal of an American woman in France than as an art mystery. This was amplified by the absence of a major conflict. Although the narrator and her friends were looking for the art, there were no forces acting against them and no real obstacles to overcome. If the author had focused more on developing the plot of the mystery and less on the day-to-day life of the main character, the book might have been more compelling.

I loved the beginning of the book, which is written from Sonia Delaunay’s point of view. I was hoping that the narration would switch back and forth as the book went on, and I was a little disappointed that the author never returned to Sonia’s story. As an artist hiding in a small village in France during World War II to avoid persecution from the Nazis, I think Sonia’s story could have been really interesting, and reading more about her would have prompted me to be more invested in Barbara’s quest to find the missing art.

<i>Missing</i> has all the makings of a great book, but the author didn’t reach its full potential, stopping short of making this story really engaging. Because of this, and because there were quite a few grammatical errors, I am giving this book 3 out of 5 stars. It’s a quick and fun read for anyone who likes art history and mysteries, but readers may come away feeling something was lacking.

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Missing
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