CATEGORY

Art is having a wild affair with murder in this breathtaking, inventive tale. Eric Van Lustbader's novella takes us from the marbled precincts of New York's uptown museum scene, through the fashionable galleries and lofts of Soho, to a gated Mafia mansion on the platinum coast of Long Island. Tess Chase, a no-nonsense appraiser with a taste for martial as well as fine arts, is in pursuit of a long-lost painting by Raphael. It entangles her in a case of deadly sibling rivalry between the heirs to the empire of East Coast crime boss Rocco Bravanno, dividing Tess's loyalties between the charismatic Anthony and his stunning sister, Jackie, both of whom have a natural lust for art and palate for murder. Uncovering a web of conspiracy and shifting alliances, Tess strives to rescue the painting from its abductors and to save Jackie from a miserable marriage to a man with betrayal in his blood. More than a Raphael is at stake in this murderous tale of envy and revenge, and Tess has yet to learn who the real traitor is.