Synopsis
After her artist lover is killed, Lieutenant Sigrid Harald is surprised when she inherits his multi-million-dollar artwork and becomes determined to track down the murderer and outrun greedy gallery owners. By the author of Bootlegger's Daughter. Tour.
Reviews
Although it has been five years since readers last met NYPD homicide detective Lt. Sigrid Harald (in Past Imperfect), only two fictional months have elapsed since Sigrid's lover, painter Oscar Nauman, died and left his entire estate, worth millions, to her as both legatee and executor. Still grieving, Sigrid returns to work and to the Manhattan art scene to authorize a Nauman retrospective?and it's tough to say which venue is less civilized. While Sigrid's detectives cope with a mother who insists her ne'er-do-well son's suicide was really murder, Sigrid herself gets a look at the dirt trapped under high culture's polished veneer. Soon after a painter angrily causes a ruckus at an opening staged by a prominent art dealer, Sigrid discovers the dealer's bludgeoned corpse in Oscar's?now her?studio apartment. Although Sigrid assigns one of her men to take charge of the case, it is her own sensitivity to enmities and old grudges in the art world that finally reveals the entire picture, although not before another life is lost. Maron adeptly establishes a coolly thematic and deceptive link among the deaths as she constructs her affecting mystery out of distinctive blend of art-world politics, past crimes and present grief.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Although Maron is best known for her lively mysteries featuring North Carolina judge Deborah Knott, she's also the author of eight novels featuring cool, self-contained NYPD Lieutenant Sigrid Harald. Here an emotional Sigrid is caught in the middle of personal tragedy when her lover, artist Oscar Nauman, is killed in an automobile accident. After narrowly escaping death herself in a shoot-out, Sigrid is understandably devastated to learn that Oscar is dead. The fact that he's left her his paintings, making her a very wealthy woman, is no consolation. Sigrid soon finds herself caught up in the New York art scene--much against her will--as gallery owners and friends of Oscar's decide to stage a memorial retrospective. When one of the gallery owners is found dead in Oscar's apartment, Sigrid must stop being the grieving lover and once again become the calculating cop. As always, Maron offers readers an intriguing, entertaining story, albeit one that's very different in tone and style from her Deborah Knott books. A fine choice and one that's sure to prove popular with Maron fans new and old. Emily Melton
Maron reawakens a too-long dormant series with the return of Lt. Sigrid Harald of the NYPD. The deaths of a fellow officer and of her artist lover throw Sigrid into decline?until her lover's legacy of valuable paintings leads to the murder of a greedy art dealer.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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