Gregory Buchanan is a state politician. He’s stereotypically vain and considers himself infallible. His wife, Phoebe, is in PR. When Gregory decides to have a larger-than-life nude portrait of himself painted by an ambitious artist who wants the painting submitted for the Archibald Prize, Phoebe is aghast. The painting’s centrepiece is the local member’s ‘member’ … and the state election is only weeks away.
As the reader might already suspect, this is a farce, with the characters written in an exaggerated manner. None more so than Phoebe’s mother, Joyce, an evangelical Christian who can’t see past a literal interpretation of the Bible. Gregory’s mother, Margaret, appoints herself as Joyce’s nemesis, possessing the rapid sharpness of wit.
In Part One there is a sense of a play being performed, with the Buchanan’s living room presented as the stage behind the proscenium arch. Characters enter and exit (to view the painting in the dining room) and rapid-fire dialogue advances the narrative. Part Two, where the painting has been cut from its frame, is more a ‘cosy’ mystery in the Agatha Christie style. Only those people who had been in the house (the above characters, plus Gregory’s sister, Sally, and the Premier, Louisa Wetherly) could have taken the painting. All have good reason for removing the artwork. The artist, Sophie White, on hearing that the painting has been stolen, fashions a more grotesque portrait and warns that if the original is not returned, the substitute will be entered into the Archibald.
There is ample comedy on offer – from Margaret in particular – and the narrative rollicks along, creatively puncturing the overinflated balloons of political ego.
Reviewed by Bob Moore
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robert Gott was born in the Queensland town of Maryborough in 1957, and lives in Melbourne. He has published many books for children, and is also the creator of the newspaper cartoon The Adventures of Naked Man. He is the author of the William Power series of crime-caper novels set in 1940s Australia, comprising Good Murder, A Thing of Blood, Amongst the Dead, and The Serpent’s Sting, and of the Murders series, comprising The Holiday Murders, The Port Fairy Murders, The Autumn Murders, and The Orchard Murders.
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