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    Black Painting
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    Black Painting
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    Black Painting
    Audiobook8 hours

    Black Painting

    Written by Neil Olson

    Narrated by Emily Woo Zeller

    3/5

    ()

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    About this audiobook

    An enthralling well-written mystery for readers who enjoyed The Keeper of Lost Things and The Improbability of Love.

    A dead body. A family torn apart. Someone is lying.

    Years ago, a forgotten Goya masterpiece was stolen from Teresa’s family home, a crumbling mansion at Owl’s Point. Ever since, Teresa has stayed away, terrified of the rumours surrounding the Black Painting and the jealous accusations that tore apart her family.

    Now her grandfather has summoned his descendants back to the mansion to discuss his will, and Teresa knows she has no choice except to return. But when she arrives, she finds the door hanging open and her grandfather dead, his eyes open and staring at the empty space where the Goya once hung.

    Someone in the family is lying, but will Teresa unravel the mystery of the missing painting before it is too late?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins Publishers
    Release dateJan 9, 2018
    ISBN9780263936971
    Author

    Neil Olson

    Neil Olson, the grandson of Greek immigrants, works in the publishing industry and lives in New York City with his wife.

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    Reviews for Black Painting

    3/5

    20 ratings7 reviews

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    • 4/5
      More of a mystery novel than anything supernatural. This novel was pretty good, and kept me entertained throughout it. The cast was a mix of horrible people, only a couple with some redeeming properties. Goya and his paintings being the best, or course.
      Emily Woo Zeller was the Narrator, and she was very good at this. I will have to find more of her audiobooks.
      This novel gets 3.5 stars, and is recommended to art lovers, and mystery lovers.
    • 4/5
      Can paintings be possessed? The family at the center of this story thinks so. They’ve been haunted by a Goya painting for years, and blame it for the horrible things that have happened in their lives. Goya’s work *is* startling in its rawness but it’s the evil perpetrated by the living that startles me the most. Good book....
    • 3/5
      This book reminds me of the gothic mysteries I read as a young teenager - a crazy family, money to inherit, secrets everywhere, a mysterious painting. A quick, entertaining read.

      (A review copy of this book was provided by the publisher.)
    • 2/5
      An obscure Goya self-portrait is at the center of The Black Painting and the Morse family, who owns it. Or did until it was stolen after which time the family fractured amidst distrust and dysfuntion. Now with their grandfather dead under mysterious circumstances, cousins Teresa, James, Audrey, and Kenny are brought back together for the first time in a decade and things get complicated fast. Too complicated. I finished because it’s a mystery and I wanted to know whodunit, but got the sense that Olson decided the murderer at the last minute by throwing a dart at the list of characters.
    • 3/5
      I’ve often enjoyed novels about art and art history So much can be hidden in works of art that they are the perfect topic to base a mystery on. I remember reading a few years ago, that art curators had discovered in a portrait a miniature self-portrait of the artist rendered as the reflection in the pupil of eye the subject painted century’s before. I digress, but this is an example of the fascinating things that make the art world the perfect setting for a novel.Neil Olson apparently agrees as both of his novels to date center around works of art, in this case a supposed fifteenth painting created during Francisco Goya’s Black Painting phase, a self-portrait reputedly able to induce death or madness in those who view it. In this, Olson’s second noel, wealthy New England patriarch Arthur Morse has summoned his many offspring and descendants home to his estate to discuss…who knows? The first of his grandchildren arrive to find him dead on the floor, his face a mask of terror and his sightless eyes gazing fixedly at the spot where his prized possession, the aforementioned cursed Goya self-portrait, would have stood had it not been stolen several years ago under mysterious circumstances. As the rest of the family arrives, the reader begins to see that this odd assemblage is about as far from being a big happy family as one can imagine. Past events, including the disappearance of the painting have left them paranoid, suspicious, traumatized, and unable to trust each other. What is happening at Owl’s Point is anybody’s guess but you can be sure that a lot of ugly secrets will be uncovered before the whole story is revealed. Olson writes with a sensitivity most often found in female authors, which allows him to focus on the inner angst and psychological torment of the Morse family’s many members, especially Teresa, art history student and youngest granddaughter, who suffered an unknown trauma during the original events and whose discovery of her grandfather’s body threatens to send her over the deep end again. My impression of this book was that it focused too much on the dysfunctional Morse family and not enough on the mystery. Olson can definitely write but I’d like to see him tighten up his plot and focus more on the mystery that is ultimately what keeps the reader engaged. *The review was based on an advanced reading copy obtained at no cost from the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review. While this does take any ‘not worth what I paid for it’ statements out of my review, it otherwise has no impact on the content of my review.FYI: On a 5-point scale I assign stars based on my assessment of what the book needs in the way of improvements:*5 Stars – Nothing at all. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.*4 Stars – It could stand for a few tweaks here and there but it’s pretty good as it is.*3 Stars – A solid C grade. Some serious rewriting would be needed in order for this book to be considered great or memorable.*2 Stars – This book needs a lot of work. A good start would be to change the plot, the character development, the writing style and the ending. *1 Star – The only thing that would improve this book is a good bonfire.
    • 1/5
      What a great premise, right? Unfortunately, the actual story failed to live up to it. 

      The story itself had all the makings to be great. You have a painting that contains a demon in it, and this painting is stolen. The owner of the painting, Teresa's grandfather, is found dead with a look of horror on his face. And everyone in the family wants to find this painting because of its wealth - and because of the powers it is rumored to hold. The problem with the story, however, is the plot doesn't really stick to the script. It meanders and flows in so many different directions that it is hard to keep track. I don't care about any of the other side plots, I just want to know what is going on with this painting! It was so frustrating to read this novel because I never got the information or the story I wanted.

      There were also a lot of characters. As in, way too many. There was nothing to really set any of them apart, and there was just so many names being dropped with no proper development that they all melded into one. It almost felt like I was experiencing whiplash, what with the sheer volume of characters and character interactions that were present in this novel. This is what happens when a story doesn't have any character development whatsoever - and it was an experience I do not want to ever repeat. 

      As I'm writing this review, I feel quite sad. This novel could have been so good. And I don't want to bash the author's efforts to write and publish a book. But there was no redeeming quality about this book. There was no effort made to keep the plot concise and interesting. There was absolutely no character development, leaving the reader swamped by the sheer number of players in this book. It was just not a good book. For those reasons, I'm giving this a 1/5 stars.

      I received this novel as an advance copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
    • 2/5
      I've always been an easy mark for any book focusing on art theft and art history, so when I learned of The Black Painting, I had very high hopes. For the most part, those hopes were not realized. As much as the very first sentence tries to evoke Daphne du Maurier's superb Rebecca, it falls short. The entire cast reminded me of the motley crew of Gone Girl-- scarcely a one of them that I wanted to have anything to do with and none of them that I cared one tiny bit about. Self-absorption and greed ruled their lives. Yawn. Teresa is, by far, the best of the lot, but she's so ethereal she's like a bit of fog blown on and off screen. She's not enough of a presence to carry the narrative load.Most of the time, this unlikable bunch of misfits prowled around the property like a pack of hyenas, their sole concern being the amount of money they inherit from their grandfather. The only time the book came to life was when Goya's fantastic Black Paintings became the focus. The first time I learned of their existence was when I took an art history class in college. Even as mere illustrations in a book, these paintings are so powerful that they've remained in my mind ever since. If only Olson's novel had one-tenth their power!