Synopses & Reviews
Savvy art expert Fred Taylor, factotum for a wealthy Beacon Hill collector too refined -- and too paranoid -- to do his own legwork, enjoys an odd but well paid life acting on Clayton Reed's whims.
Reed suspects that there may be a Vermeer worth millions concealed under a boring landscape coming up for auction. Fred, more interested in chasing an independent Cambridge librarian than pursuing Old Masters, finds his mission to get the Vermeer derailed by Reed's purchase of an unsigned nude from a down-and-out photographer of pornography who is subsequently rubbed out in his sleazy studio.
With various vultures circling -- including the Boston PD -- Fred is thrust into detection in order to score the painting, if it exists, and escape jail. His biggest obstacle is to pry the truth out of his own employer....
Fred's cases continue in Man with a Squirrel, O Sacred Head, and Dirty Linen. Kilmer is at work on a fifth Fred Taylor, Lazarus Arise.
Review
"'Art is violent,' says Fred Taylor, a Boston art consultant who is the hero of this new mystery series. And so it is when Fred is around. Who knew that the pursuit of beautiful paintings could lead to such murder and mayhem. A Vietnam veteran with a dark-tinged past, Fred is the business partner of a rich aesthete whose passion is art collecting. The discovery of a brilliant work of doubtful provenance in the hands of a down-and-out pornographer leads to a gathering of art professionals who flock round the painting like vultures about carrion. Kilmer has a bit of trouble making the plot go, and his characters need some shaping to sustain the reader's interest. But when the talk turns to painting, there is real passion on the page." Reviewed by Andrew Witmer, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
Review
Irreverent...Witty...the erudite but down-to-earth Fred is a treasure.
--New York Times Book Review
Review
In addition to his enlightening discourses on fine painting, Kilmer...delivers amusing character studies of obsessive, often ruthless collectors and the shady purveyors who accommodate their wilder whims by working the dark end of the trade.
--New York Times Book Review
About the Author
Nicholas Kilmer, born in Virginia, lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Normandy, France. A teacher for many years, and finally Dean of the Swain School of Design in New Bedford, Massachusetts, he now makes his living as a painter and art dealer. In 1964 he married Julia Norris, and with her has four children.