Good Girl, Bad Girl (An Alex Novalis Novel) - Softcover

Finch, Christopher

3.24

461 ratings by Goodreads

9781611099713: Good Girl, Bad Girl (An Alex Novalis Novel)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1611099714 ISBN 13: 9781611099713

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer, 2013

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

In May of 1968, New York City is broke and on the skids, and private eye Alex Novalis is hard up for gigs. So when he’s offered a case from wealthy construction mogul Gabriel Kravitz, he can’t refuse.

Kravitz’s eighteen-year-old daughter Lydia has gone missing. Though she’s presumed to be with Jerry Pedrosian, the radical middle-aged artist and known womanizer she’d been sleeping with, there are few clues. Information is hard to come by; everyone seems to be hiding something. And then there’s Andrea Marshall, Lydia’s miniskirted and vinyl-booted best friend, who Novalis is deeply distrustful of...and unfortunately attracted to.

But as Novalis traverses the city, tracking Lydia from scummy artists’ lofts in pre-gentrified SoHo to luxury penthouses overlooking Central Park, he’ll face threats deadlier than any he signed on for.

Smart and sophisticated, Good Girl, Bad Girl provides a rare, fascinating snapshot of late 1960s New York City—a glimpse into the forbidden sex, politics, art, drugs, and counterculture violence that ran rampant in its once gloriously gritty streets.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

Christopher Finch was born and raised on the island of Guernsey in the British Channel Islands. He lived in London and Paris before moving to New York City in the late 1960s, the setting of Good Girl, Bad Girl. After working as a freelance writer and artist in New York for more than two decades, he moved to Los Angeles, where he continues to write and make art. Christopher has mounted one-man shows in both New York and Los Angeles, and his work has been included in museum exhibitions. He has occasionally written for television; his Judy Garland biography, Rainbow,was made into a movie for television. He is married to Linda Rosenkrantz, who is an author and the cofounder of the website nameberry.com. They have a daughter named Chloe.

From Library Journal:

PI Alex Novalis, formerly with the DA’s office but ousted for marijuana possession, specializes in art crimes. This time out, the crime involves the artist, not his work. Novalis is hired to find the missing 18-year-old daughter of Gabriel Kravitz, a wealthy New Yorker who strongly suspects celebrity artist Jerry Pedrosian of kidnapping Lydia. It all sounds a bit naive, but things weren’t all that liberated in 1968. At best, it was a time of changing morals and startling anger as exhibited by protests, assassinations, and bombings. Novalis makes the rounds, talking with his art dealer contacts, Lydia’s mother (whose story is vastly different from her husband’s), Lydia’s best friend Andrea, and Jerry’s relatives. But it’s not until someone tries to push him onto the subway tracks that Novalis recognizes that this case might be more volatile than he thought. VERDICT Finch’s background as an art historian (Image as Language; Chuck Close: Life) and expertise on the late 1960s art scene bring credibility and intrigue to a fairly predictable plot.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.