Synopses & Reviews
Cambridge art expert Fred Taylor, consultant to a rich and omnivorous Beacon Hill collector, is disturbed by discovering that the harmless old gent who'd been haunting Fred's strongminded lover, librarian Molly Riley, lies dead on the banks of the Charles. Soon Fred's distracted by a second find, a fragment of a painting. It lies in antique dealer Oona Imry's shop. Fred feels in his gut that the piece of canvas, handsomely portraying a squirrel at a man's feet, might be by John Singleton Copley.
His boss, Clayton Reed, charms Oona into selling him the squirrel, then sends legman Fred out to look for the rest of the painting. A new fragment shortly arrives from the hands of Oona 's nephew, gratis, after Oona dies under a train. Are the canvases tied to her murder and that of Molly's stalker? Is Fred on some kind of killer treasure hunt?
Art dealer and painter Kilmer delights in mirroring comtemporary crimes with well-researched and compelling use of history. Erudite and witty, he keeps the reader's unflagging interest through a combination of clever puzzle construction and deft narrative understatement.
Review
"Chock-full of fascinating hints for readers interested in collecting fine art, and unlike many experts-turned-writers Kilmer knows how to construct a plot." --Booklist
Review
"Irreverent...Witty...the erudite but down-to-earth Fred is a treasure." --New York Times Book Review
Review
""Anyone who has ever wandered into a museum gallery of Italian religious paintings of the Baroque period and been repelled by the lurid depictions of flayed, flagellated, roasted, toasted, and crucified martyrs will laugh (and shudder) at Nicholas Kilmer's irreverent treatment...."" --New York Times Book Review.
Review
“Irreverent...Witty...the erudite but down-to-earth Fred is a treasure.” New York Times Book Review