As in Santlofer's two previous crime novels (The Death Artist
and Color Blind
), his latest to star Kate McKinnon, a former NYPD detective turned art historian, brings the New York art world to sharply detailed life. Kate has given up her rich clients and is now writing a book about the New York School of painters of the 1930s. After someone slashes a painting by Willem de Kooning, which was loaned to a museum by Kate's late husband, she reluctantly returns to police work. She decides to help Det. Monty Murphy, the NYPD's entire art squad, find out who's behind this and other slashings, which include a Jackson Pollock, a Franz Kline and finally the collectors who owned the spoiled pictures. Kate and Monty make a believable pair of colleagues, and Santlofer's own black-and-white artwork advances the plot. His writing and plotting are no match for his superior brushwork, however, which makes for an inventive and curious book. Agent, Suzanne Gluck at William Morris
. 6-city author tour
. (Oct.)
