Art Kills

Rating:
Summary: unbelievably bad
Review: I can't imagine how such a thing could get printed. It is evidently a vehicle for portraying Lesbian love, with a few nods here and there to great art (brought in to validate the title, one presumes) plenty of four-letter words and allusions to The Mob, to make things move along. I checked the book out at my local library because of the quotations from reviews from "Kirkus Review," the "Los Angeles Times Book Review," etc. on the back cover, and all I can say is that the reviewers must have been describing some other book.

Rating:
Summary: A Plot Skeleton Published Instead of the Finished Version?
Review: This is an average skeleton outlining the plot of what may well be an enjoyable novel when the author gets round to writing it. Only problem is somehow this plot idea skeleton has been published as the actual finished novel when it clearly lacks substance. This plot outline is about an art expert who witnesses a colleague she doesn't much like get hit by a car. Someone steals his briefcase and she stupidly decides to tail the thief to an apartment and steal the briefcase for herself. Now not really explained proplerly in the story this woman was somehow set up to do just what she did and is taken at gunpoint to a mansion where she has to validate the painting inside the briefcase as a real priceless Raphael. Although the characters are not really explained in any depth the family in the mansion is at war with other parts of the extended family and she ends up out of the blue sleeping with the daughter of the owner of the house for no apparent reason other than the author probably has some lesbian bedroom fantasies he wants to put on paper. She has to somehow figure out how to get the Raphael into safe museum hands and survive.

This short story (it is only 80 less than half the size of A4 pages of above normal sized font) is like a primary school child's effort at writing a story. Well actually I'm sure they can do better. Out of the blue suddenly one character is interacting with another as if they've known each other all their lives with no explanation as to how they even know each other or character development at all. I won't waste my time or money on other poor literacy efforts by this author.


Rating:
Summary: Short and to the point Novella
Review: This novella is short and to the point, as any novella is likely to be. If you've ever read any of Lustbader's other mystery/adventure novels, then you've got the gist of Art Kills. And if you strip away the sub-plots, exotic locales and Eastern themes of his other novels you've got Art Kills exactly. It's like taking a movie and telling the main story in an one hour tv show instead. You don't loose much with this novella. You've got intrigue, tension, violence and a love story all packed together nicely in here. As a quick read it was pretty good. I give it a B on the StuPage.

Rating:
Summary: Poorly written Trash
Review: This review is submitted as a warning. The pretentiousness of Art Kills is exceeded only by its ineptness of execution. The characters became so ludicrous that my friends and I were laughing by the end and only wished that the main character was eliminated in the final bloodbath. There is now a danger of a sequel.