The Art Collection: Three Short Stories - Carla Sarett

I liked Carla Sarett's stories in 13 Bites Vol. 1 and Summer Dreams, anthologies in which I also participated. I  So I felt confident that I would enjoy the three short stories in The Art Collection. I was not disappointed.

All three of the stories in this collection have art, or works of art, as a theme, and there's a mystery at the heart of each one. My favorite is probably the final story, "The Captain's House." It's about a woman who volunteers with the committee that runs a historic house on Philadelphia's Main Line. The house is a showcase of period decorative arts, but something's not quite right about at least one of them.

Sarett's characters are well-drawn and believable. In particular, I loved her description of the president of the board of directors of the Captain's House, Evan Beamish: "a tall, white-haired man who seemed serenely absent-minded. He wore an endearingly bright yellow bow-tie, and he seemed somewhere between the ages of sixty and ninety. It was hard to tell. He might have looked the same at forty." I'm pretty sure I've met that guy, and I'd bet you have, too.

The Art Collection is a quick read that I very much enjoyed.