O Sacred Head (Fred Taylor Mystery) - Hardcover

Kilmer, Nicholas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805050337 ISBN 13: 9780805050332

Publisher: Henry Holt & Co, 1997

Synopsis

Called in to identify a seventeenth-century painting of Christ in Agony, Fred Taylor also finds himself involved in the investigation of a murder and the question of whether a fake painting can be responsible for a series of miracles

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews

A never-ending snowstorm socks in Boston, upending plans high and low. It leaves the roads deserted and virtually impassible, absolves librarian Molly Riley's kids from school, and (so she says) strands fly-by-night art dealer Lavinia Randall Whitman in town for long enough to offer collector Clayton Reed a sniff at a mind-boggling collection of 90 paintings (with signatures like Vel zquez, Rembrandt, and Lucas Cranach) that can be purchased only as a group for the bargain price of $45 million. But the bad weather doesn't slow down whoever crucified the decapitated corpse at 1001 Memorial Drive and decorated the crime scene with a painting of the suffering Christ--a painting that the Cambridge cops want Clayton's legman and Molly's lover, Fred Taylor (Man With a Squirrel, 1996, etc.), to identify and price. The baroque, horrendous murder seems to have nothing to do with what Fred is convinced is the scam being run on his boss- -until an even more marginal dealer offering Clayton a separate deal on a Rembrandt that's obviously part of La Randall's mysterious collection turns up in a Boston hotel as dead as Rembrandt--and as hideously tortured as the John Doe across the river. The first half of the story, which sets up the leading players and shows their opening moves, is confident, amusing, and just tense enough--altogether the best thing Kilmer has done so far. But be warned: the preposterous solution will leave you gasping, and not in a good way. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

It's not easy writing a mystery set in the art world without sounding like you're imitating Jonathan Gash's Lovejoy novels. Luckily, Kilmer's Fred Taylor mysteries don't feel like imitations. Kilmer, a painter and art dealer, certainly knows his field. In this third entry in the series, Taylor investigates a murder involving a rare seventeenth-century painting and a decapitated victim. The tale is chock-full of fascinating hints for readers interested in collecting fine art, and--unlike many experts-turned-writers (certain lawyers, say, or physicians)--Kilmer knows how to construct a plot. O Sacred Head is not the best of the Taylor mysteries (some readers may find it a little too cluttered), but, like its predecessors, it's very well written, and the solution to the mystery is elusive enough to keep readers turning the pages. David Pitt

Edition details

• Publisher: Henry Holt & Co
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0805050337
• ISBN 13: 9780805050332
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 241