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LAZARUS, ARISE
by Nicholas Kilmer
Poisoned Pen Press, September 2001
200 pages
$24.95
ISBN: 1890208809


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Fred Taylor, agent for wealthy, eccentric Boston art collector, Clayton Reed, is returning from Paris when an elderly man collapses in the arrivals concourse of the International Terminal at Logan airport. When he gets back to Reed's house on Beacon Hill, they discover that Fred has inadvertantly picked up a newspaper apparently dropped by the dying man. Rolled inside the newspaper, is a folio sized page from an exquisitely illuminated manuscript. One side has a miniature of Lazarus, the other side is an equally elegant portrayal of Hell.

Clay calls Hannah Bruckmann, an expert in illuminated manuscripts to identify the fragment and authenticate it. Fred sends Clay to a conference to get him out of the way, but while he is away, it appears that word has gotten out, and every dealer in illuminated manuscripts. museum curator, and librarian in the world has heard about the folio.

Meanwhile, Taylor's lover, Molly, is acting strangely, so Fred must add her problems to his. He goes to their home and gives the gifts he brought home from Paris to her children and to her. Although she remains distant, she uses some of her friends to discover the identity of the man who died at the airport. He was Jacob Geist, an event artist in the style of Christo. His major work had been to recreate the Mason-Dixon line as "A Line of Sweetness" on July 4, 1976, in molasses. He thankfully disappeared from the world after that, until his death.

Taylor locates a sleazy art dealer who claims to represent Geist. Kilmer's drawn a great caricature of a man who sells trash as art and, in the meantime, makes a fortune while destroying the lives of the "artists" he represents. Fred also has located Geist's studio and has communed with the dead man. Since he was there when Jacob died, he feels responsible for the fragment, and he doesn't quit until Hannah discovers its history.

Like Kilmer's other books, this one has some very interesting and well done parts, but it is very uneven. There is fascinating information about art dealers and incunabula, but his life with Molly distracts somewhat from the main thread of the story. For those who like art mysteries, however, this series is worth a try.

Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, August 2001

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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