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Title details for The Genius by Jesse Kellerman - Available

The Genius

by Jesse Kellerman
Kirby Heyborne
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
Ethan Muller is struggling to establish his reputation as a dealer in the cutthroat world of contemporary art when he stumbles onto a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: in a decaying New York slum, an elderly tenant named Victor Cracke has disappeared, leaving behind an enormous trove of original artwork. Nobody can say anything for certain about Cracke except that he came and went in solitude for nearly forty years, his genius hidden and unacknowledged. But all that is about to change.
So what if, strictly speaking, the art doesn’t belong to Ethan? He can sell it–and he does just that, mounting a wildly successful show. Buyers clamor. Critics sing.  Museums are interested, and Ethan’s photo looks great in The New York Times. And that’s when things go to hell.
Suddenly the police are interested in talking to him. It seems that Victor Cracke had a nasty past, and the drawings hanging in the Muller Gallery have begun to look a lot less like art and a lot more like evidence. Is Cracke a genius? A murderer? Both? Is there a difference? Sucked into an investigation four decades cold, Ethan will uncover a secret legacy of shame and death, one that touches horrifyingly close to home.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    April 22, 2008

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781415954614
      • File size: 398395 KB
      • Duration: 13:49:59

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from February 25, 2008
      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 Times
      article 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.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      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 (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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