Bronzed Betrayals

Bronzed Betrayals is the fourth book in A Bodies of Art Mystery series.  Though author, Ritter Ames says in her interviews that she writes her books to stand alone, I did not find this to be the case. I started with reading this book and constantly felt like I was missing some important information that was constantly referred to.

This is the story of Laurel Beacham, who I gather, is an art thief who steals back stolen art.  So in this novel we meet Laurel and her boyfriend and team member , Jack seems to work for the British intelligence.  As a worker for the honest side of the police, he is supposed to recover lost or stolen art.  They work together, but sometimes he turns a blind eye to Laurel's methods.  Fo course there is a murder and Laurel's life seems to be in danger.  As they work with Nico and Cassie two more members of the team, they are running against time trying to find out who stole the bronze before getting killed themselves.  There is also a side story which seems very complicated, about Laurel childhood.  Her mother died in a car accident, or was she murdered?  Her father, is he her real father or not , is there matching DNA?  Did he die or is he in hiding?  These sub plots are confusing and lead you down roads that don't seem to meet up with the main plot.

Unfortunately I will not be going back to start at the beginning to find out what I missed.  This series did not capture my attention enough, I did not connect with the characters so that I want to find out what happened to them either before after this novel.