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While browsing the Falmouth Memorial Public Library on a cold winter day, I found a fictional mystery titled "Murder at the Gardner" by Jane Langton. This book is a humorous satire on museum life at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts. The characters and events in it are all imaginary, including the humorous names of the director, staff, and the board of trustees. The book was written before the famous 1990 heist at the Gardner Museum of 13 works now valued at 500 million dollars, which were not insured and never found. Therefore, this book has nothing to do with the famous heist. It is a pure creative fantasy.
However, the imaginary characters described in the book take you from room to room in the actual Museum, mentioning the famous works of art that are hung on its walls that define each room's name.
The story opens with Titus Moon, director of the Gardner Museum, hiring a detective, Homer Kelly, to investigate a series of strange events that have been happening at the beautiful Museum. Detective Kelly says (right away) he knows nothing about art but is glad to investigate issues that are bothering the museum director. What are the issues?
A stipulation in Gardner's will states that everything must remain the same in every room, or the place must be sold, with funds going to the Harvard faculty. Apparently, someone is moving work around from room to room in the Museum, which makes the museum director nervous. He wants Detective Kelly to find out who is doing this. The guards and staff have been trained not to move works in the Museum.
Detective Homer Kelly is a stock figure in this mystery series. He is in the background, but he is the person who ties together the mystery in each story. "Murder At the Gardner" is the seventh out of 18 books written by Jane Langton. Each book has a different historical location, while its characters are entirely made up.
As the story moves on, Director Moon leaves Detective Kelly to browse around the Museum on his own and rushes off to his office to run interviews for potential assistants to write and edit a catalog of the Museum. Titus is planning to create a major catalog that will include all the Museum's paintings, Greek and Roman Sculptures, Turkish bowls, Medieval wall reliefs, Japanese screens, Venetian windows, French and Italian fireplaces, rare books, saved letters, and tapestries. Three thousand items in all will be included.
Titus hires two assistants to work on the catalog: Polly Swallow, an overly enthusiastic, awkward but very intelligent person, and Aurora O'Doyle, an efficient, sneaky social climber and niece of the Boston Mayor. Polly falls in love with Titus and hates Aurora, who competes for his attention.
As the story progresses, Catherine Rule, a conservator of fine tapestries, is working to repair old works in the Museum, and is described as a 70-year-old virgin. She befriends Polly Swallow, one of the two new assistants hired on staff…Polly visits Catherine Rule in the tapestry room one day and admires her sewing ability, watching her nimble hands as she repairs a tapestry. Aurora drops into the room and thinks the whole scene is boring but announces she has invited Titus to dinner at her apartment on Beacon Street. Then she flutters out and leaves her sweater. Polly gets up to return the sweater, and Catherine says she will do it later. Don't worry about her sweater.
Aurora, at dinner, makes steak for Titus before sitting on the couch with him to enjoy wine and cheese. Then she opens his tie and shirt, takes off his shoes, and says I will be right back, leaving to put on a sexy negligee. Meanwhile, Titus hears the doorbell and opens the door in bare feet, an open shirt, and a loose tie to find that Catherine Rule has arrived to return Arorora's sweater. Aurora's romance effectively shortcircuits at this point. However, Aurora (who has changed her name from Phoebe because it sounds better) is out to catch Titus.
Yet the story moves on to more serious things like the mysterious shifting of certain paintings from room to room, a card game of solitaire changing cards on a table by itself, a bomb scare, where the painting of "The Rape of Europa" is missing for a while, and last but not least the murder of Mrs. Madeline Hepplewhite, a trustee. She is found dead on the third floor by a nine-year-old child on a student tour. (The guard for that room called in sick that day). So Titus Moon had his hands full as the director of this imaginary version of the Gardner Museum.
Detective Homer Kelly trudges through it all, searching for the culprit responsible for all these strange activities in the Museum. If you want to find out who killed Madeline Hepplewhite, you must read the book. It brings a laugh on every page.
This book is a satire about life in a museum, depicting an imagined version of the dignified Gardner Museum before the heist of 1990. For those who have loved the Gardner Museum over the years, I recommend authentic documentary books like "Mrs. Jack" by Louise Hall Thorp and "Stealing Rembrandt" by Anthony Amore and Tom Mashberg.
If this review inspires you to visit THE GARDNER
CALL 1-617-566-1401 to make reservations.
Open Hours :
Monday | 11 am–5 pm
Tuesday | Closed
Wednesday | 11 am–5 pm
Thursday | 11am–9pm
Friday | 11 am–5 pm
Saturday | 10 am–5 pm
Sunday | 10 am–5 pm
Price: Adults $20.
Seniors $18.
College students with I.D. $13.
Children under 12 are free.
Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum (website)
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