GoodReads meta-data is 292 pages, rated 3.71 by 1399 litizens.
Genre: krimi.
Verdict: Elik (Elle + IKEA).
The setting is grand but underdeveloped in preference to descriptions of the clothes worn by everyone who passes over the page and even more detailed descriptions of furnishings and fittings of homes, offices, and elevators, but strangely — mercifully — not cars. All of that pointless detail puffs up the book far beyond plot or character.
The plot is good, too: all those items in storage a museum never has occasion to display are tempting for a thief with inside assistance who plays a long game.
But do people repeatedly tell others they have something of the utmost importance to tell them…next Friday at 3 pm. Or do they just blurt it out; do they just tell them right now! That starts it off on the wrong credibility foot and it stays that way.
An enormous red herring is so conspicuous that he could not possibly be guilty. Near the beginning there is a nice but underdeveloped incident in the First Ladies exhibit. I like some of the coming and going in DC but there is little of it. There is a distracting sidebar about a nutter claiming to be James Smithson’s heir. It adds nothing to the plot, ambience, or character. Though it does remind us that not all the idiots are in the White House.
This title is one of a series by Truman, daughter of Harry, set in D.C. For example, Murder at ….the Library of Congress, National Gallery, National Cathedral, Pentagon, Kennedy Center, Washington Tribune, and Ford’s Theatre.