The Portrait of Molly Dean
by Katherine Kovacic (Bonnier, 2018); audiobook read by Casey Withoos (Wavesound, 2020)
What would have been a hardboiled detective story in 1930s Melbourne (the setting of the murder) turns to a more cosy mystery in 1999 (when art dealer Alex Clayton attempts to solve it). Kovacic’s easy narrative style cannot quite bridge the disparity.