O Sacred Head: A Fred Taylor Art Mystery

art Expert Fred Taylor Is The Agent For Paranoid Beacon Hill Collector Clayton Reed, A Civilized Man Yet Utterly Ruthless Collector. Fred Supplies Not Only The Brainwork, But The Muscle, In Their Association. And From Time To Time, Fred Either Runs With, Or Outfoxes, The Police.it Is The Cops, In Fact, Who Plunge Him Into His Latest Detection (after Harmony In Flesh And Black And Man With A Squirrel) By Inviting Him Into A Grisly Murder Scene. A Decapitated Corpse Has Been Found Alongside An Italian Religious Painting Of The 17th Century. The Body Is Clearly For The Moment That Of A John Doe, But Can Fred Identify The Painting. Its Subject Is Christ In Agony. though Reed Warns Fred To Stay Away From The Baroque's Fascination With Martyrdom If He Values His Sanity, Fred Is Hooked By The Mystery. Fighting A Snowstorm Paralyzing Boston, He Researches The Picture's Provenance And Establishes It Is Supposed To Have Miraculous Properties. He Also Comes To Suspect It Makes Up Part Of A Collection Of Old Masters Being Hawked Around Town That May All Be Fakes. If It's A Fake, Can It Work Any Modern Miracles? Moreover, Who Was It That Died? as The Author Reports, Genuine Art History Is Part Of The Plot...past Mystery And History Interlock With The Present...if It's Tough Sometimes, It Can Still Be Funny.to Move Into Erotica And Brush Against Victorian Prudery, Carry On With Dirty Linen. Kilmer Is At Work On A Fifth Novel, Lazarus, Arise.publishers Weeklya Brutal Snowstorm That Effectively Shuts Down Boston Provides The Chilling Setting For Kilmer's Third Mystery (after Man With A Squirrel, 1996) Featuring Art Expert Fred Taylor. Fred Is Asked By The Police To Identify A Painting Of The Head Of Christ Found At A Grisly Murder Scene In An Upscale Apartment Building: The Decapitated Body Of A Man Is Nailed To The Mantel In A Crucifixion Pose, Except That The Painting Has Been Placed Where His Missing Head Should Be. Meanwhile, Fred's Employer, Art Collector Clayton Reed, Is Approached By Two Dealers, Each Of Whom Wants To Sell Him The Same Collection Of Old Master Paintings, Including A Velazquez And A Rembrandt. But Neither Dealer Will Let Him See The Paintings Or Tell Him Who Owns Them. Things Start Heating Up When One Of The Dealers, A Known Felon, Is Found Strangled In A Sleazy Hotel Room. Despite The Continuing Snow That Makes It Almost Impossible To Get Around, Fred Manages To Get Photocopies Of The Velazquez And Rembrandt Paintings And Determines That Neither Is Authentic. Once He Realizes That The Painting Of The Head Of Christ, A Known Miracle Painting That Weeps Blood, Is Also Almost Certainly A Forgery, He's Sure That The Paintings Are All From The Same Collection And Suspects That The Two Murders Are Connected. As Well As Creating A Complex, Literate Mystery With An Insider's View Of The Art World, Kilmer Gives Fred A Welcome Shot Of Down-to-earth Reality With His Girlfriend, Molly, And Her Two Well-drawn Children. (sept.)