SoHo Sins

by Richard Vine

Overview

Portrait in BLOOD


They were the New York art scene’s golden couple — until the day Amanda Oliver was found murdered in her SoHo loft, and her husband Philip confessed to shooting her. But was he a continent away when the trigger was pulled? Art dealer Jackson Wyeth sets out to learn the truth, and uncovers the dangerous secrets lurking beneath the surface of Manhattan’s posh galleries and decadent parties, a world of adultery and madness, of beautiful girls growing up too fast and men making fortunes and losing their minds. But even the worst the art world can imagine will seem tame when the final shattering sin is revealed...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781783299294
Publisher:	Titan
Publication date:	07/19/2016
Series:	Hard Case Crime
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	32,964
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

RICHARD VINE is the managing editor of Art in America, one of the world’s most influential art magazines. He holds a Ph.D. in literature from the University of Chicago and has written hundreds of critical essays and  two nonfiction books on contemporary art. He recently curated museum exhibitions in India and China, and his travels as an art critic have taken him throughout Europe, Asia, South America, and the Middle East. In earlier days, he worked in steel mills and a locked psychiatric ward, was a beach bum in Hawaii and an ad executive in Chicago, studied in the south of France, and participated in the 1970 Kent State demonstrations that ended with four students killed and nine wounded. SOHO SINS is his first novel.

Editorial Reviews

05/02/2016
The contemporary New York art scene provides the backdrop for art magazine editor Vine’s colorful first novel. When art patron Amanda Oliver is found dead in her SoHo loft, her husband, Philip, immediately and continually confesses to her murder, even though he couldn’t have been there 24 hours earlier when she was shot. Philip’s attorney hires PI Hogan to investigate, and Hogan enlists art dealer Jackson Wyeth’s help. In their search for the truth, Hogan and Wyeth travel through the demimonde of assorted deviants, both artistic and sexual, who are the friends and lovers of the Olivers. Revelation slides after revelation, and a child pornography ring is exposed and eliminated, without moving the reader noticeably closer to the killer. Meanwhile, Philip rapidly deteriorates physically and mentally. The authentic background at times entices, and some of the characters are well realized, but the plot is lumpy, the police are curiously absent from the homicide investigation, and the detecting is mostly an offstage afterthought. And yet the vague denouement is strangely satisfying. (July)

Publishers Weekly

Suspenseful…sultry…thrilling.”  — The New Yorker

"A gripping, noirish hard boiled mystery that will leave readers questioning their conclusions well after the curtains come down on this tragic,twisty, and unrelenting debut." - MYSTERY SCENE

"The New York art world of the '90s, awash in money, frames a suspenseful crime novel that's also a gripping morality tale involving sex, ambition, deception and murder. The intricate plot, blending real and fictional places and persons, delivers a devastating, intriguingly ambiguous surprise ending." - Elizabeth C. Baker, editor-at-large, Art in America

“Darkly glamorous, brimming with sophistication and thrumming with a decadent’s regret, SoHo Sins stuns right through to its final pages. I couldn’t put it down.” - Megan Abbott
 
"Drama, deceit, and debauchery...Richard Vine brilliantly brings the underbelly of the art world to the forefront in this dark tale of woe. Phenomenal." - Eric Shiner, Director, The Andy Warhol Museum
 
“Savvy and deeply enjoyable. The Great Gatsby meets Raymond Chandler.” - Bill Pangburn, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

“A dark, sophisticated and twisted tour that puts the reader right in the middle of the art world, with no escape till the last page.” — Jonathan Santlofer, author of THE DEATH ARTIST

"A very dark, very noir crime novel, SoHo Sins is a satisfying read for fans of the genre." — New York Journal of Books 

“Five out of five stars for this debut novel.” - New York Journal of Books 

“The book is a worthy entry in the noir tradition no matter what, but what made it extra-wonderful for me was its cheerfully vicious dissection of the high-society gallery scene.” - Comic Book Resources

 "...the unpredictable plot twists come fast and furiously as the story plumbs the depths of the human heart and terrible sins with maestria and elegance. Truly impressive." - Love Reading

“Clever…built masterfully…[a] powerhouse debut.” — Criminal Element

“Rarely has a first novel shown such confidence in its prose and such insight into its characters and setting. You’d swear it was the work of a seasoned novelist with national renown.” - Bookgasm

"a pitch-perfect pulp novel" — Mysterious Bookshop 

"The story grips you." - The Fandom Post 

"The conventions of the pulp genre are nicely conjured and well-suited to this page-turner and Vine is especially adept at blending his fictional characters with real Soho-Tribeca art world places, from the gallery laden streets of Chelsea to the Odeon the once again popular go-to dining spot evoked in the opening paragraph." - Nevada Appeal

From the Publisher