The Lethal Partner - Hardcover

Page, Jake

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0345387848 ISBN 13: 9780345387844

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1996

Synopsis

In his novels featuring the blind sculptor Mo Bowdre, Jake Page has staked out contemporary Santa Fe as his exclusive territory, vividly capturing the swirl of art, high style, new money, and ancient mystery that makes this desert oasis so endlessly fascinating. Now, in The Lethal Partner, Bowdre's got his hands full in a city about to explode with ethnic tensions, theft, betrayal, forgery . . . and murder.
The discovery of seven previously unknown Georgia O'Keefe paintings sets not only Sante Fe, but the entire international art world, buzzing with excitement. Elijah Potts, successful author, skilled seducer, and shrewd owner of the Southwest Creations gallery, knows that this cache of canvases will be the crowning glory of his career--and the key to the fortune that he has always craved. But before the new O'Keefes can be authenticated, the suave, elegant world of Elijah Potts starts to unravel. First Anita Montague, the manager of Elijah's gallery and his sometime lover, is murdered. Next the paintings disappear. And then Potts finds himself in jail, charged with Anita's murder.
Is it a frame-up or is Elijah Potts a player in an elaborate game of forgery, greed, and deception? Mo Bowdre, with problems of his own, wants nothing to do with the police and media circus that descends on Santa Fe. But somehow he just can't keep out of it. And Mo's beautiful Hopi girlfriend Connie has a funny feeling that Potts isn't the man he appears to be. . . .
With three unsolved murders hanging over the city--all of them young and attractive Anglo women--Santa Fe has become a tinderbox of multicultural suspicion, hidden dangers, and mounting paranoia. Mo, gifted with an artist's sensitivity and a blind man's sixth sense, thinks he knows who has committed the crimes and why. The question is: Can he act on his knowledge before it's too late?

About this title

From the Inside Flap

s featuring the blind sculptor Mo Bowdre, Jake Page has staked out contemporary Santa Fe as his exclusive territory, vividly capturing the swirl of art, high style, new money, and ancient mystery that makes this desert oasis so endlessly fascinating. Now, in The Lethal Partner, Bowdre's got his hands full in a city about to explode with ethnic tensions, theft, betrayal, forgery . . . and murder.<br>The discovery of seven previously unknown Georgia O'Keefe paintings sets not only Sante Fe, but the entire international art world, buzzing with excitement. Elijah Potts, successful author, skilled seducer, and shrewd owner of the Southwest Creations gallery, knows that this cache of canvases will be the crowning glory of his career--and the key to the fortune that he has always craved. But before the new O'Keefes can be authenticated, the suave, elegant world of Elijah Potts starts to unravel. First Anita Montague, the manager of Elijah's gallery and his sometime lover, is murdered. Next the paintings d

Reviews

Set in the Southwest, Page's series features blind sculptor Mo Bowdre and his Hopi girlfriend, Connie Barnes. Their fourth adventure (after The Knotted Strings) unfolds in Sante Fe, "the world of Art and Myth," where the lore and legend of ancient Indian cultures often clashes with the realities of modern-day America. The brutal murders of two white women lead police sergeant Anthony Ramirez to consider the possibility of racial motivation. At the same time, in the detached world of art and wealth, gallery owner Elijah Potts announces the discovery of seven paintings ascribed to Georgia O'Keeffe. With the occurrence of a third murder, Ramirez, aided by Bowdre and Barnes, turns the focus of his investigation toward Santa Fe's art colony. Page develops an intriguing cast, including an ex-con who considers himself a Kevin Costner look-alike and Potts's sensual, raven-haired mistress, to support the likable Bowdre and Barnes in this fast-paced plot. Despite the vanishing, without explanation, of some other characters, this assured tale snakes its way to an intricate, absorbing conclusion.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The discovery of seven previously unknown paintings by Georgia O'Keeffe leads to murder in this latest entry in the Mo Bowdre series. Mo is a blind sculptor who lives in Santa Fe and occasionally assists an ungrateful police force in their investigations. Art gallery owner Elijah Potts claims that he and two friends, including Mo's Hopi girlfriend Connie, found the O'Keeffe works in an adobe house near O'Keeffe's beloved and oft-painted mountain, Pedernal. Potts figures he's sitting on at least a million dollars, but then gallery manager Anita Montague is murdered, and Potts is the prime suspect. Matters are further complicated when the paintings are stolen. Page is a good storyteller, effectively combining suspense (including two zingers at the end) and ambience. The novel neatly captures the tension between the cowboys and eccentrics of the old New Mexico and the state's new arrivals, intent on transforming the area into California East or New York West. George Needham

Blind sculptor Mo Bowdre and his Hopi girlfriend, Connie Barnes, have exuded a palpable maverick charm since the first page of this series (The Stolen Gods, LJ 2/1/93). In this installment, seven unknown Georgia O'Keeffe canvases have surfaced in an old shed in Santa Fe, and suave gallery owner Elijah Potts is savoring the fame and fortune he anticipates from their unveiling. Then the body of Anita Montague, Potts's gallery manager, is found stuffed in a drainpipe. As Potts stumbles upon the theft of the O'Keeffes from his vault, the police arrive to arrest him for Montague's murder. Sgt. Anthony Ramirez needs Mo's intuitive assistance to crack the case. Despite a few awkward passages and unfortunate similes (e.g., "Early spring in Santa Fe is like a school child with attention deficit disorder, good-natured enough at heart but not to be pinned down to someone else's curriculum"), Page's chichi Santa Fe entertains. Recommended.
Susan A. Zappia, Maricopa Cty. Lib. Dist., Phoenix
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0345387848
• ISBN 13: 9780345387844
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 246