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Man With a Squirrel: A Fred Taylor Art Mystery
Harmony In Flesh and Black: A Fred Taylor Art Mystery
Ebook series2 titles

A Fred Taylor Art Mystery Series

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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About this series

In Nicholas Kilmer's sequel to Harmony in Flesh and Black, the debut of his mystery series set in the Boston art world, we're reacquainted with the passionate noncollector Fred Taylor. Fred, prowling the antique and jumble shops of Boston's Charles Street, enters one of his own haunts--Oona's--which is run by an unflappable, seen-it-all proprietress as honest about her wares as she is ruthless in her pricing and secretive about acquisitions. Oona offers Fred a painting, the image of a common gray squirrel on a chain, which he discovers has been cut from a larger canvas.

Believing it to be the work of an important eighteenth-century American master, he snaps up the fragment for his employer, the eccentric Beacon Hill art collector Clayton Reed. Then he sets out to find the remainder of the painting and its origins.

Fred's quest, with assistance from his lover, Molly Riley, crosses and ultimately blocks the path of Dr. Eunice Cover-Hoover, whose specialty is deprogramming former members of satanic cults. Molly, pursuing her own agenda, becomes entangled with this adept psychologist--and, shortly, murder, mayhem, and other forms of vandalism join the violence already done to the painting.

Kilmer's story in Man with a Squirrel bursts with a sophisticated and sardonic wit and a thorough knowledge of the art world: its glories, romances, accidents, and dangers.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateJan 1, 1976
Man With a Squirrel: A Fred Taylor Art Mystery
Harmony In Flesh and Black: A Fred Taylor Art Mystery

Titles in the series (2)

  • Harmony In Flesh and Black: A Fred Taylor Art Mystery

    1

    Harmony In Flesh and Black: A Fred Taylor Art Mystery
    Harmony In Flesh and Black: A Fred Taylor Art Mystery

    Nicholas Kilmer's Harmony in Flesh and Black exposes a deep knowledge of the sometimes tricky and treacherous haut monde of art dealers, collectors, and curators. Smartly tailored, well-to-do Beacon Hill collector Clayton Reed has habits so refined that he doesn't even venture out to pick up his own acquisitions. He leaves that sort of work to Fred Taylor, a veteran of clandestine action in Southeast Asia who is presently working as Reed's factotum. A passionate noncollector, Fred researches possible purchases and fights for them at auction--but he is really more interested in his blossoming relationship with Molly Riley, an independent-minded Cambridge librarian. In this series debut, Reed suspects that there may be a Vermeer painting worth millions lying underneath the oils of an unexciting nineteenth-century landscape. Tension mounts as he and Fred try to keep the vultures away and their hunch to themselves before auction. Meanwhile, Reed buys an unsigned nude smacking of 1890s Paris--it could be a Whistler, something he might have titled Harmony in Flesh and Black--from a down-and-out porno photographer who is soon afterward found murdered on the floor of his filthy studio. Their success depends on keeping a low profile, but now Clayton and Fred are in danger of being implicated in a very sleazy crime--which may at best jeopardize their plans to get the Vermeer, and at worst put their lives in danger.

  • Man With a Squirrel: A Fred Taylor Art Mystery

    2

    Man With a Squirrel: A Fred Taylor Art Mystery
    Man With a Squirrel: A Fred Taylor Art Mystery

    In Nicholas Kilmer's sequel to Harmony in Flesh and Black, the debut of his mystery series set in the Boston art world, we're reacquainted with the passionate noncollector Fred Taylor. Fred, prowling the antique and jumble shops of Boston's Charles Street, enters one of his own haunts--Oona's--which is run by an unflappable, seen-it-all proprietress as honest about her wares as she is ruthless in her pricing and secretive about acquisitions. Oona offers Fred a painting, the image of a common gray squirrel on a chain, which he discovers has been cut from a larger canvas. Believing it to be the work of an important eighteenth-century American master, he snaps up the fragment for his employer, the eccentric Beacon Hill art collector Clayton Reed. Then he sets out to find the remainder of the painting and its origins. Fred's quest, with assistance from his lover, Molly Riley, crosses and ultimately blocks the path of Dr. Eunice Cover-Hoover, whose specialty is deprogramming former members of satanic cults. Molly, pursuing her own agenda, becomes entangled with this adept psychologist--and, shortly, murder, mayhem, and other forms of vandalism join the violence already done to the painting. Kilmer's story in Man with a Squirrel bursts with a sophisticated and sardonic wit and a thorough knowledge of the art world: its glories, romances, accidents, and dangers.

Author

Nicholas Kilmer

Nicholas Kilmer lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is the author of Harmony in Flesh and Black, Man with a Squirrel and A Place in Normandy.

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