Los Angeles Times
Disturbingly and deliciously different, altogether perfect for our times.
Baltimore Sun
A thriller so tightly wired that the reader's self-control shatters.
Marilyn Stasio
A suspense story has to take over your mind, leaving you disoriented (and feeling a little foolish) when you look up at the end. Jesse Kellerman makes this act of self-hypnosis easy, mainly because he understands the mechanics of obsessive thought…Being the kind of writer who collects voices the way beachcombers pick up buckets of shells, Kellerman revels in the verbal cacophony of a gallery opening and the brittle badinage of a sales pitch. But the nasal tones of Ethan's narrative voice reveal a lonely little rich boy who needs something to substitute for a distant father's love. Listen to that voice long enough and it becomes as mesmerizing as the radiant horrors of Victor's psychotically deranged art.
—The New York Times
Publishers Weekly
Greed gets Ethan Muller, a 33-year-old Manhattan art dealer, into hot water in Kellerman's superb third stand-alone thriller (after Trouble). When reclusive artist Victor Cracke disappears, Muller winds up taking possession of the boxes and boxes of intense, disturbing drawings that Cracke left behind in his shabby Queens apartment. A favorable New York Timesarticle helps fuel lucrative sales at an exhibit of Cracke's drawings at Muller's Chelsea gallery. Soon, though, Muller starts to receive cryptic, vaguely threatening letters. He also hears from a retired NYPD detective, Lee McGrath, who recognizes the face of one of the boys in a Cracke drawing as belonging to the victim of a 40-year-old unsolved murder. That revelation turns Muller into an amateur detective as he attempts to discover how the dead boy's image-along with those of several other victims-made its way into the pictures. Kellerman has a gift for creating compelling characters as well as for crafting an ingenious plot that grabs the reader and refuses to let go. Author tour. (Apr.)
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From the Publisher
A suspense story has to take over your mind, leaving you disoriented when you look up at the end. Jesse Kellerman makes this act of self-hypnosis easy.”—The New York Times
“GRIPPING.”—Chicago Sun Times
“SUPERB.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“BRILLIANT.”—Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
“It’s a mystery, but like the best crime fiction, it is much more.”—Booklist
JULY 2008 - AudioFile
In Kellerman's best storytelling yet, Ethan Muller, a smug, narcissistic gallery owner, comes into possession of an astonishing collection of sketches otherwise headed for the dumpster. The artist, reclusive shut-in Victor Cracke, has disappeared. When a retired police detective sees the drawings and recognizes the face of a boy killed years ago in one of them—you’re hooked. Narrator Kirby Heyborne's voice offers rewarding surprises. As Ethan, Heyborne sounds ironic, and appropriately trendy. As the old-warhorse ex-cop, his gravelly rasp foreshadows the man's deadly cancer. As a convoluted tangle of back stories unfolds, Heyborne's performance makes you believe it all. Kellerman brings a satisfying symmetry to Ethan's search for the mysterious Victor, and Heyborne's narration will keep listeners chained to their earphones. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
