Dirty Linen

Rating:
Summary: Best Fred Taylor art mystery to date
Review:

Boston art collector Clayton Reed sends his agent Fred Taylor to Westport, Massachusetts to bid on erotic art being put up for bid as part of the auction of the late Lord Hanford's collection. The Runnymeade Museum will benefit from the proceeds. Fred successfully purchases the drawings, which are the works of the famous nineteenth artist Joseph Turner at an extraordinary low price.

However, before they can toast their victory, problems surface for Clayton and Fred. Hanford's son slaps them with a law suit, demanding the return of the collection. A rival collector is putting brutal pressure on everyone associated with the purchase to inform him what they know about the works. Fred begins his own investigation to ascertain why these drawings, which are atypical of Turner's landscape work, have become suddenly hot. However, it is a shop assistant working on his thesis who uncovers the link that includes a Victorian age murder.

The fourth Taylor art mystery is the best book of a well-designed series. DIRTY LINEN is fascinating as 1999 characters look back at genuine mid-nineteenth century events, which are wrapped inside a stimulating modern tale. Fred remains an interesting character, but his support cast add much to the crisp story line. Especially of note is author Nicholas Kilmer's clever use of secondary players to unravel much of the mystery. This "historical" art who-done-it is a masterpiece of the sub-genre.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: A Witty and Superior Art Historial Mystery
Review: One thing is sure: The Fall River, Mass., Chamber of Commerce is never going to list "Dirty Linen" on its top-10 list. The old industrial city, "sprawling and grubby," turns up like a bad penny throughout this riveting mystery set in the art world of Boston, Cambridge, and that less picturesque city to the southeast. Fred Taylor's boss, millionaire art collector Clayton Reed, is, for reasons not initially clear, holed up in Fall River's no-tell motel the Silver Spur. It reminded him of "the Golden West-- Puccini!" Fred and Clay have a relationship reminiscent of Rex Stout's Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe. Clay calls the shots; Vietnam vet Fred does all the legwork. By the end of this art historical detective story, which takes us imaginatively to England of the 1840s and painlessly teaches us a great deal about painter Joseph Turner and his critic John Ruskin, we fully understand why Clay is holed up in the Silver Spur. Meantime a dead man has been mutilated by feral dogs, an antique dealer beaten and a woman's hair sexually violated. Kilmer fans will certainly want to read his three previous mysteries in this fine series and also his non-fiction book, "A Place in Normandy."