An Elegant Corpse by Helen A Harrison
Helen A. Harrison’s latest work is more than a finely crafted murder mystery; it’s also a bizarre lesson in art history, as are her three previous novels. Her characters are famous painters, writers, sculptors, collage artists, collectors, dealers and gallerists — but her stories are imaginary. She bends facts into fiction and creates enticing mysteries full of glamor, romance, jealousy, greed – and murder, of course.
An Elegant Corpse has it all. On the very first page, we find the body of a lifeless man slumped on the floor beneath a dazzling Jackson Pollock painting, but Harrison immediately jolts us back more than 20 years to when the story really begins.
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Alfonso Ossorio, a real-life Filipino-American abstract expressionist artist and collector, is restoring a sprawling estate in East Hampton with his lover and companion, Edward Dragon. The house and its grounds are pivotal to this mystery, with its lavish allure, 57 acres of rare and exotic evergreens, plants and flowers, 40 luxurious rooms and a dozen fireplaces. Harrison paints such a clear picture of this dreamy retreat that the juxtaposition of back-biting, jealousy and temper tantrums becomes practically visible.
Alfonso and Edward’s neighbors are also artists — including the widowed Lee Krasner, quite likely the most influential of the bunch. Ossorio and Dragon’s home is a place where New York’s finest artists and collectors come to mingle and gossip. When so many fragile egos and pomposity are together in the same room with fancy cocktails, there will be drama. But no one expected murder.
It’s a great who-dun-it. Harrison’s brisk writing style powers the plot, and her familiarity with the artists, their works and their temperaments give the story a firm foundation — Lee Krasner’s furious outburst, Edward Dragon’s attitude about the evergreens, David Gibbs’ highly debatable motives.
A FINELY CRAFTED MURDER MYSTERY
For Harrison fans, the completely fictional police force family, the Fitzgeralds, return to solve the mystery. This time, it’s TJ, Brian and Juanita’s grown-up son, who steps in to help. TJ’s investigations turn up more than he was looking for, and as the mess unravels, there’s relief, surprise and closure. But readers may want more.
Those new to Harrison’s fiction may want to look for her previous mysteries: An Exquisite Corpse (which centers around surrealist Andre Breton, including Cuban painter Wilfredo Lam, Max Ernst and Marcel Duchamp), An Accidental Corpse (the tragic Jackson Pollock story), and An Artful Corpse (set in the famed NYC Art Students League). Each stands on its own, but lovers of art, history and mysteries will want to read them all.
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Harrison’s easily readable style may lure readers to her nonfiction. She is a former New York Times art critic, museum curator and respected writer of scholarly essays and articles in professional journals. She is the director of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in East Hampton. She brings years of knowledge and passion to her writing. Her friendships with many of the people she writes about make the stories rich with personal intimacy and respect.
Harrison’s short afterword is definitely a must-read. Since An Elegant Corpse, and all of her mysteries, are a combination of fact and imagination, her afterword and acknowledgments straighten out a few things — but that’s the joy of a mystery, that the reader has questions, too.
About the author:
Helen A. Harrison, a former New York Times art critic and NPR arts commentator, is the director of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in East Hampton, NY. A specialist in modern American art, she is the author of many exhibition catalog essays, chapters in multi-author books, and essays, articles and reviews in scholarly and popular publications, as well as several non-fiction books and three previous murder mysteries set in the 20th century art world.
