Sunday, June 17, 2012

The Portrait of Doreene Gray-Esri Allbritten

The Portrait of Doreene Gray


Esri Allbritten

Minotaur, July 3 2012, $24.99

ISBN: 9780312569167



Four decades ago in Port Townsend, Washington Maureene Pinter painted a portrait of her twin sister Doreene. Now fifty-eight years old, Maureene looks her age; while the painting looks like someone in their fifties, someone would think Doreene is a teen as she still looks eighteen though aches tells her otherwise. Now Doreene is selling the portrait.



Boulder, Colorado’s Tripping magazine learns of the auction. Angus MacGregor, Michael Abernathy, and Suki Oota head to the Pacific Northwest to investigate. However, Doreene is found dead while her portrait is that of a teen. The police believe she either killed herself or died in an accident; they rule out homicide. The three traveling journalists look into her death anyway; they find anomalies and several suspects with murder motives especially her sibling Maureene.



The return of the Tripping trio makes for a humorous paranormal investigation (see Chihuahua of the Baskervilles) as this time Oscar Wilde receives the amusing refreshing Esri Allbritten treatment. The storyline is fast-paced though a bit thin as the three reporters work on the strange case of The Portrait of Doreene Gray.



Harriet Klausner

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