Amazon.com
Add James Bradberry's name to that short list of writers who can create excellent mysteries set in the art world. The trick is to balance the expertise and obvious love of the subject with a story strong enough to carry along even those readers who think of art mostly as expensive wallpaper. Bradberry's Jamie Ramsgill is an architect and teacher who is in Philadelphia to apply for a job with a top firm and to try to bond with his irritating older brother. When the head of the firm in question disappears, and Ramsgill's sister-in-law uncovers an unknown painting by Thomas Eakins with scandalous overtones, the two events come together in a deft and enjoyable burst of puzzlement. Bradberry's previous Ramsgill book, The Seventh Sacrament, is available in paperback.
Kirkus Reviews
The author's architect/sleuth Jamie Ramsgill (Ruins of Civility, 1996, etc.) wants to give up teaching and hopes to join the commercial Philadelphia firm in which his old friend David Laycutt is a partner. Jamie has also contacted his long-estranged brother Michael, a Philadelphia lawyer married to Cate, and the assistant curator at the Philadelphia Museum. Arriving for his job interview, however, Jamie finds that Laycutt has disappeared, leaving behind an envelope with an address in the town of Jim Thorpe, taking with him a gun and most of the company's cash. All of this has to do with a painting by Thomas Eakins, once owned by a Mrs. Addison, eventually sold by her to Laycutt and collector Harold Farber. It was first declared a fake, then pronounced genuine but copied at one point by painter Major Devero, who lives in Jim Thorpe. His blackmailing letter has led to Laycutt's sudden departure. Jamie takes it upon himself to follow Laycutt to Devero's address, but he's powerless to stop the carnage that ensues. As for the Eakins painting, the peregrinations of both original and copy are lost in a dizzying morass of confusion--a description that could equally apply to a well-written but exasperating story that loses credibility with each succeeding chapter. It's a challenge to carry on to the finish. Most readers won't. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
