After his hugely successful debut, 1997’s A Civil Action, Jonathan Harr is back with his sophomore effort, The Lost Painting, which chronicles a female Italian graduate student and Irish restorer’s efforts to track down obscure Italian painter Caravaggio’s lost masterpiece, The Taking of Christ. Harr provides a compelling and incisive story that mixes scholarly sleuthing and art history, moving moves at a lively, brisk pace and with articulate prose. It seems Harr is apparently just as comfortable talking about complex artistic processes as he is with toxic drinking water and legal complications. At the same time, Harr also paints a vivid portrait of his own on Caravaggio’s wild life, renown for his street-fighting as much as his paintings.

Read a review of The Lost Painting here.