The Woman in the Blue Cloak

In Meyer’s enjoyable if slight work, the sixth outing for all-too-human Capt. Benny Griessel of South Africa’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations (after 2015’s Icarus), a woman’s bleached and nude corpse turns up outside Cape Town. No clothing or possessions were nearby, and the pathologist determines that she died elsewhere, killed by a blow to the back of her head. Griessel catches a break when a hotel concierge recognizes the dead woman as Alicia Lewis, an American who was living in London. Further digging reveals that Lewis was a case manager for the Art Loss Register, a firm that maintained “the largest private database of lost and stolen art in the world,” and which searched for missing art. History professor Marius Wilke, who met Lewis when she came to South Africa, informs Griessel that she was in search of a painting, possibly worth $100 million, by one of Rembrandt’s protégés. Strong characterizations, even of secondary characters, compensate for a whodunit plot that isn’t Meyer’s best. Hopefully, he’ll return to form next time. Agent: Richard Pine, Inkwell Management. (May)