The Ministry of Fine Arts, tasked with, among other things, investing in unknown artists in order to provide works to be displayed around the country, isn’t the most popular department. The new minister Humphry David, appointed after the non-mysterious deaths of his two predecessors, isn’t too happy with his new job, but he’s going to do the best he can.

When a civil servant, brought in to investigate a number of irregularities and possible cases of forgery, is found crushed to death under a marble bust that should have been impossible to move, it is clear that things at the Ministry are far more dangerous than appeared at first. Enter Inspector Julian Rivers…

I’ve been a bit lax on reviewing British Library releases recently – I’m planning to catch up on the recent (and new) releases over the next few months, so when this one popped through my letterbox, I thought I’d dive straight in. I like E C R Lorac, Edith Caroline Rivett’s other alter ego, so I figured this would be a quick easy read.

Well, I stuck with it, but this never grabbed my attention, bar from a couple of chapters where three bright young things take over the pages and discuss what they think is going on elsewhere in the building. These were quite bright and cheery, but they were for the most part the exception.

I’ll freely admit, government bureaucracy is not exactly my cup of tea and I’ve never been desperately interested in where government buildings get their art from, but this isn’t a patch on Lorac/Carnac’s other works. I enjoyed Impact of Evidence, more for the setting than the plot, but here with the setting not standing out, I struggled to care who did it or how. Inspector Rivers isn’t a patch on Inspector MacDonald either, coming across as rather charmless.

I think that some will find a lot to like here, especially if you’re interested in art, so I’d recommend that if you liked the other Rivett titles, give this one a try. I’m glad I read it, but I can’t help but be disappointed by it.

I’m a little curious why the British Library seems to be reprinting Rivett’s work from the end of her career, rather than the earlier, Golden Age titles. If you want a great read about artists and someone mysteriously being crushed by a statue, then I heartily recommend a book from twenty years earlier, the impossible to find Lorac title A Pall For A Painter. It’s an excellent engrossing mystery from an author at the height of her powers. Fingers crossed we head back into this era for the next Rivett title.