The Chrysalis

by: Heather Terrell

Published by: Ballantine

Reviewed by Kathy Perschmann

The Chrysalis is Terrell’s first book, and her legal training and experience are evident here in this fascinating historical mystery.

The story is told in three distinct eras:

1) the first is the creation of the painting, The Chrysalis, by Johannes Miereveld, a Dutch artist from the 1600s.

2) The second is the story of the owner in 1944, the Baum family in Belgium, Jews who have converted to Catholicism, and who love the painting for its Catholic iconography.

3) The bulk of the tale is told in the present day, when Beazley’s auction house is planning on selling it for an unidentified seller, and Hilda Baum sues for the painting, claiming it was stolen from her family by the Nazis.

Beazley’s provenance research shows it was sold by the family to a dealer in Nice. Mara Coyne, an attorney at a prestigious Manhattan firm, is convinced winning this case will encourage her firm to offer her a partnership. A bit dismayed when she finds out that the attorney for Beazley’s that she will be working with is Michael Roarke, a sensitive and intelligent man she was attracted to in college. Still she soldiers on and her legal research proves brilliant. Her ability to keep her distance from Michael, however, is not so good—they form a secret relationship quickly. Mara also finds herself getting close to the main provenance researcher for Beazley’s, the elderly Lillian Joyce. A sudden email discovery shows that her case and all she knows about Michael and Lillian may be false; her world is shattered. Does she want to be party to a fraud?

The various eras are portrayed well. I wish the book were longer so we could have lingered more in the 1600s with Johannes and Amalia.

Armchair Interviews says: The legal roadblocks to proving a painting’s ownership when stolen by the Nazis are really amazing.