Pros: A short, easy work – less than an hour to read.
Cons: A short, easy work – the reading lasted less than an hour.
The Bottom Line: This first epinion of 2003 is my shortest review ever. That is because art kills was a very short but satisfying read. I strongly recommend it.
This slim volume entitled art kills is a mere 87 pages. Despite its diminutive size, art kills is parchment testament to the old saw that “good things come in small packages”.
Tess Chase is articulate, beautiful, connected, and monied. She is one of those women that many men want and many women want to be like. [Or is she one of those women that many women want and many men want to be like?] Since childhood Tess has been enamored of high art. She has traveled the world and often been in the company of works by Cezanne, Degas, Delacroix, Dufy, Monet, Picasso, Raphael, and the like. Neither prints – mind you – nor lithographs, nor serigraphs. Tess only deals in the real thing. Perhaps that is one reason that she has emerged as one of the premiere art appraisers in America.
Many appreciate fine art for its calming attributes. The world of art, however, is not always soothing. In art kills, Tess is clearly about to find that out.
THE 87-WORD SYNOPSIS
While toying with lunch at a trendy sidewalk table, Tess Chase spies sleazy Howard Lenz, “. . . a well-worn leather briefcase clutched in one fist”, furtively exiting the Empire State Museum of Art.
Well acquainted with Lenz’s shady art dealings, Tess presumes that he can be up to no good. Before she can confirm her suspicions, a speeding car turns Lenz into a bloody smear. That accident – if it was an accident – will also turn Tess into an art investigation unlike any she has conducted before.
THE AUTHOR IN BRIEF
Eric Van Lustbader is a very talented author. Many of his novels are series with a martial arts flavor. While this genre is generally not one of my favorites – I have enjoyed the 15 Lustbader works that I have read. I recommend art kills. It is a quick way for you to ascertain if Lustbader’s unique style is to your liking.
You can discover some interesting tidbits about this fascinating man in a 2001 interview available at http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/jul01/lustbader.htm. Links to some of his other writings can be found at http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/authors/Eric_Van_Lustbader.htm.
THE PARTING MINI-SHOT
Eric is but a year younger than I. In the last 22 years he has published more than two-dozen literary works. In that same time, I have published but one – and I bought all four copies of that. So I guess you will have to be content with my Epinionating.
art kills
Eric Van Lustbader
Carroll & Graf Publishers
New York
Hardback 2002
ISBN 0-7867-0889-1
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