Description:
Someone is sending Charles Vermeille photographs of his beloved only son. Here is one of Jean-Louis on a surfboard, reading on a balcony, playing tennis, at a picnic--pictures that are in and of themselves harmless, but when sent anonymously become invested with sinister possibilities. Soon Vermeille, a world-renowned art appraiser whose special expertise is in the work of French master Claude Lorrain, begins to suspect the pictures are a subtle threat--but from whom? And why? In his previous novel, Death by Publication, J.J. Fiechter had a field day letting his characters run amok in the arcane world of publishing. In this one, it's the rarified high art scene, where reputations are made on topics such as "Inert-Gas Preservation Methods for Paintings" and art appraisers have almost as many enemies as tax collectors do. Could the anonymous threats against Vermeille's son be motivated by professional matters--his pending appraisal, for instance, of a long-lost Lorrain painting that has just miraculously been found? Or might there be something more personal behind them? A Masterpiece of Revenge is short, elegant, and wickedly convoluted. And even if you think you've figured out who the villain is, there's a neat little twist waiting for you at the end, guaranteed to surprise--and delight. --Margaret Prior
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