Fred Taylor, a veteran of unspecified clandestine services that have caused him to spend hard times in Southeast Asia, finds himself at loose ends in Boston. A late-night chance encounter in the city's Beacon Hill area throws his lot in with eccentric art collector Clayton Reed. Reed has been tri...
I picked this up looking for a mystery about art. While I did enjoy the main protagonist and most of the storyline, I found the 'wealthy collector' a bit superfluous and irritating. Almost unnecessary. I think the author was going for an American version of the British high society guy with 'stre...
In 1920, Nicholas Kilmer's grandfather Frederick Frieseke, one of the preeminent American impressionists, purchased a farmhouse in Mesnil, a Norman town almost completely (to quote a local taxi driver) sunken away dans la nature. Until his death in 1939 he lived and painted there in the company o...
He’s a decent printmaker but he’s a good-time boy. I wouldn’t trust him. He’ll do anything for a joke. Also I don’t trust the girl at the desk right now,” Peter said. “She’s a part-timer, she’s new, she’s dumb, and she let Harmony scare ...
The back of it bore a purple stamp, HECHO EN MEXICO / 20 × 20. Fred looked at it in hatred, assigning it primary blame for the violation performed on the painting. He was sitting with it in the subway, riding outbound from Charles Street station after an uneventful Monday. He’d put the puzzle out...
As a wraith she had remarkable staying power. “How long they were married I don’t know. Two years? Could he have even known her? Did she suspect, when they married, that something was wrong with her? I don’t think so. She was more surprised than anyone. “Clay was devastate...