Fugitive Blue, by Claire Thomas

Reviewed by Bonnie Cleaver

Don't be misled by the title — this is not a crime or detective novel. On the other hand, there is detective work of another kind going on, as the main character, a young art conservator, peers into the far corners of her heart to find the reasons for her crumbling relationship with a self-obsessed, narcissistic actor named Mark.

Charged with restoring a fragile panel painting of two angels against a brilliant ultramarine sky, she becomes absorbed in the story behind the object. Starting with its creation by a gifted young artist in Renaissance Venice, the story weaves its way forward to the panel's reappearance 300 years later on a nobleman's travels to Europe.

The tale of the painting winds on through 19th-century Paris and into the safekeeping of Elise, a beautiful but conflicted ballet dancer, and finally its arrival in Australia with a struggling post-war Greek migrant family. The vastly different characters and settings weave together to form a smooth, multi-layered story about art, beauty, love and the complexity of relationships.

The painting becomes a metaphor for how the conservator is feeling. The energy she pours into painstakingly restoring the deteriorating object reflects how her own relationship has fallen to pieces as a result of neglect, miscommunication and the inevitable drift that happens when two people grow apart, rather than together.

Told from the perspective of the art conservator speaking to her ex-boyfriend in the aftermath of their breakup, the constant jumping of the narrative can be a bit distracting, but overall I thought this was a well-written novel. Not riveting, but definitely intriguing.