Let me preface this by saying I abhor fiction written in the first person. It's rarely done well. However, Estelle Ryan has taken everything I hate about first-person writing and made me love it – at least in her series about Genevieve Lenard. I have read every book in the series over and over again.
Ms. Ryan's characters show depth right from the first book in the series. She quickly introduces several of the characters used throughout the series in the first book, including Genevieve, an autistic insurance investigator for a high-end art insurance company; Manny, a grouchy old man who needs help solving cases for Eurocorps; Colin, a thief with many aliases; Vinny, a large, scarred man who is Colin's best friend; Philip, the owner of the insurance company where Genevieve works; and the beautiful Brazilian-mix hacker, Francine.
Genevieve sees everything in black and white and says what's on her mind. She's a body language reader, which makes her so good at her job. She doesn't believe in telling lies unless she's forced into it – and even then, she can't do it very well. She suffers from autistic shutdowns, and Manny brings a shutdown on when he brings a murder and gun theft case to Philip and Genevieve for their help in solving the mysterious murder and stolen Eurocorp weapons.
Genevieve's research leads her to more dead artists and several poets who seem to be involved in the murder of the artists – or at least these poets seem to show up in her research every time she finds a dead artist.
Every book features the above-mentioned characters plus others involved in the crimes that Genevieve solves. Every new character has the same depth as the original characters. Ms. Ryan's stories are well-researched, which shows when Colin discusses the artists whose paintings are part of the crime.
You can find Estelle Ryan's Genevieve Lenard series on Amazon. Her books include (blurbs are written by Estelle Ryan and quoted from Amazon):
1. The Gauguin Connection: "A straightforward murder investigation quickly turns into a quagmire of stolen Eurocorps weapons, a money-laundering charity, forged art and high-ranking EU officials abusing their power. As if this isn't enough, she reluctantly teams up with an international thief whose knowledge of the art world proves invaluable."
2. The Dante Connection: "Despite her initial disbelief, Doctor Genevieve Lenard discovers that she is the key that connects stolen works of art, ciphers and sinister threats."
3. The Braque Connection: "Forged masterpieces. Hidden messages. A desperate swan song. When world-renowned nonverbal communication expert Doctor Genevieve Lenard wakes up in an unknown location, drugged and kidnapped, it pushes the limits of her autism coping skills."
4. The Flink Connection: "A cryptic online message leads nonverbal communications expert Doctor Genevieve Lenard to the body of a brutally murdered politician. Despite being ordered not to investigate, Genevieve and her team look into this vicious crime. More online messages follow, leading them down a path lined with corruption, a sadistic assassin, an oil scandal and one of the biggest heists in history—the still unsolved 1990 Boston museum art theft worth $500m."
5. The Courbet Connection: "Nonverbal communications expert Doctor Genevieve Lenard's search for an international assassin is rudely interrupted by an autistic teenager who claims that forged masterpieces are being sold on the dark net—a secret internet few know exists. The resulting probe uncovers an underground marketplace offering much more sinister products and services. Including murder."
6. The Pucelle Connection: "Mediaeval books. Murdered priests. Bioweapons. Renowned nonverbal communications expert Doctor Genevieve Lenard's search for an international criminal is interrupted when her team receives an antique book. At first the book is dismissed—until they discover similar books gifted to people who are now dead."
7. The Leger Connection: "Stolen art. Rogue police officers. Drones. A video call from her dad leads top white-hat hacker Francine to four stolen masterpieces. And to a possible murder—in Brazil. Her frustration at being so far away is turned into anger when her loved ones are attacked and corrupt law enforcement officials stonewall their inquiries."
8. The Morisot Connection: "Murdered criminals. Flawless forgeries. Encrypted operas. The murder of an opera house director forces world-renowned nonverbal communications expert Doctor Genevieve Lenard and her team into an impossible position: protecting notorious criminals—from what appears to be a serial killer."
9. The Vecellio Connection: "Sadistic smugglers. Hacked cars. The ultimate revenge. Nonverbal communications expert Doctor Genevieve Lenard and her team have spent the last year tracking Marcus Gallo, a disgraced Brazilian business tycoon and ruthless killer. Then a hacked car transporting artwork brings a teammate's past back to distract and haunt them all."
10. The Uccello Connection: "Coded paintings. Missing planes. Dirty bombs. After a foiled attempt on the lives of world leaders, criminal mastermind Ivan Fradkov successfully eludes world-renowned nonverbal expert Doctor Genevieve Lenard and her team for months. But things heat up quickly when a stranger is assassinated in the chair next to Genevieve while she's having lunch with her friend."
11. The Netscher Connection: "Nazi-looted art. Cyber-stalking. Betrayal. Nonverbal communication expert Doctor Genevieve Lenard is on holiday in Hungary when she and her team are asked to assist in a missing person case. Her autistic mind is already having difficulties dealing with the new environment, and having to co-operate with local authorities might push her past her limits. Even more so when the missing person turns out to be an important, and painful, part of a team member's past."
12. The Roubaud Connection: "Brutal murders. An ancient treasure. A rogue state. A young acquaintance of nonverbal communications expert Doctor Genevieve Lenard begs her to look into the disappearance of his friend. When the friend's tortured body is found in a forest outside Strasbourg, the case leads Genevieve and her team to the body of a second victim with many unusual secrets--a forged masterpiece the least surprising of them all; an ancient treasure shrouded in mystery the most intriguing."
13. The Sirani Connection: "Stolen masterpieces. Deadly narcotics. Artificial intelligence. A mysterious email and the arrest of a fugitive art thief send Doctor Genevieve Lenard and her team to Prague, where it soon becomes apparent that this theft has a close connection to a sadistic killer they've been tracking for almost a year."
14. The Becic Connection: "Art restoration. A sinister collector. Internet of Things. Doctor Genevieve Lenard is woken in the middle of the night with the news that a loved one has been kidnapped and forced to steal a masterpiece. Her world-renowned nonverbal communication skills are of no worth when her autistic mind can barely handle the distress and the mystery behind the kidnapping.:
15. The Malhoa Connection: "A decades-old crime. A torment not forgiven. Ice-cold revenge. When a prolific international criminal takes one of Doctor Genevieve Lenard's friends hostage in his own flat, she is hard pushed to believe his motivation. Calling on her expertise as a nonverbal communications specialist, she sees the genuine fear and desperation behind this thief's blustering demand to help him stop the Collector."
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