For me, the enjoyment of a non-fiction book depends on how much it reminds me of fiction in respect to flow and characterization. With THE LOST PAINTING I had trouble telling the difference.

On the surface Harr's book is about the search for Caravaggio's lost painting "The Taking of Christ," but on another level it's about how the people in the art industry compete for recognition. It's about their petty rivalries and feuds and how destructive these human foibles can be. In the first several chapters, art history students Francesca Cappelletti and Laura Testa do research for a man named Giampaolo Correale, who is trying to prove that the Caravaggio painting "St. John" hanging in the Capitoline Gallery in Rome, as opposed to the one at the Doria Pamphili, was the real Caravaggio. They are given access to the Mattei archives, controlled by the Marchesa Annamaria Antici-Mattei. Cardinal Ciriaco Mattei had been a Caravaggio patron and owned at least three of his paintings. Francesca and Laura were given access to Mattei's account books. They were not able to find a record of the purchase of the St. John but they did find conclusive proof that Mattei had commissioned "The Taking of Christ," a missing Caravaggio.

Harr incorporates a bit of humor here as the Marchesa is an older woman who is a danger to herself as well as the art world. She asks repeatedly what Francesca and Laura want to see, and they repeatedly tell her. She is also rearranging the archive, making it virtually impossible for researchers to find anything. Francesca hides the account book from her.

Francesca is able to trace "The Taking of Christ" to Scotland but there is no record of who it was sold to at auction there. This is where Sergio Benedetti enters the picture. He is an art restorer working on a painting he thinks is "The Taking of Christ." Although he's an experienced restorer, Benedetti almost ruins the painting. Twice. Benedetti was too poor to go to school to become an art historian, but he wants to recognized as a Caravaggio expert and as the man who discovered the missing Caravaggio, worth something like thirty million pounds. Another interesting character is Denis Mahon, a Caravaggio expert, who at ninety-three is still looking for the next missing Caravaggio. Caravaggio had been dismissed as a minor painter for a hundred years. Only recently had he risen to the level of Michelangelo and Raphael; so there were many missing paintings.

Harr also includes excerpts from Caravaggio's life. He was a man of the streets, who liked to hang out in brothels and bars. He was involved in many a street brawl and was even implicated in a murder. Harr cautions that he had no intention of writing a biography. In his notes on his sources he recommends several, particularly CARAVAGGIO: A LIFE, by Helen Langdon.

Dave Schwinghammer's unconventional mystery, SOLDIER'S GAP, is available at authorsden.com and at Amazon.com, new and used.