THE CHRYSALIS
Heather Terrell
Ballantine Books
Thriller
ISBN-10: 0345494660
ISBN-13: 9780345494665

• About the Book
• Read an Excerpt
• Author Interview -- May 18, 2007

I'm no expert on painting. My knowledge of the subject pretty much begins and ends with Hieronymus Bosch's work, and that's by choice. Accordingly, a mystery involving paintings has to be really good for me to be interested. Dan Brown published a novel of some renown that fits this description, and David Hewson's A SEASON FOR THE DEAD, which centers on paintings to a large degree, certainly does as well. If I may, let me add to that short list THE CHRYSALIS.

Heather Terrell's debut novel is set primarily in present-day New York, but secondary storylines, taking place in Berlin of the 1940s and the Netherlands of the 17th century, enhance the main narrative. The Berlin backdrop provides added detail as to how The Chrysalis passed from its rightful owner while giving fascinating, if horrific, illustrations of how Nazi Germany acquired a treasure trove of European art even as they pursued a pogrom of extermination. It is the Netherlands storyline, however, that is perhaps the most intriguing.

Terrell has created out of whole cloth a master painter named Johannes Miereveld, whose penultimate creation, The Chrysalis, becomes the catalyst for a drama that will occur centuries later even as it symbolizes a personal and professional dilemma in its own time. She thus draws a distinct and fascinating line between past and present, comparing and contrasting them even as it adds to the puzzle of the primary storyline.

Terrell has labored as an attorney in the fields of top law firms and large corporations, and the experiences she has acquired along the way inform at least part of the background of the novel. Mara Coyne is an upwardly mobile Manhattan lawyer, on the fast track for a partnership in a large and very powerful firm. She recognizes that her assignment to defend Beazley's, a prestigious auction house, is the equivalent of a final examination for that position. The case against Beazley's involves an accusation that The Chrysalis, the centerpiece painting of a forthcoming auction, was the object of a Nazi wartime theft.

Coyne's extensive research and Beazley's copious documentation of the chain of title appear to give Coyne a solid, impenetrable defense. The fact that Beazley's in-house counsel is Michael Roarke, an old college acquaintance for whom Coyne has strong feelings, complicates matters, but not enough to keep Coyne and Roarke from stoking the fires they're naturally inclined to build. When Coyne discovers that Beazley's claims are suspect, however, it places her in a dilemma in which professional ethics and moral considerations conflict, even as she realizes that if she follows the moral high road she will lose not only her case and job but also her life.

Part mystery and part legal drama, THE CHRYSALIS is a noteworthy, dramatic debut from an impressive author who has much more planned for the future.

   --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

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