The Genius

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.

Starred review from May 1, 2008
Ethan Muller owns an art gallery in Manhattans Chelsea; in his world, hes successful and connected.He acquires a treasure trove of many thousands of phantasmagoric, interlocking drawings created by a recluse who appears to have vanished. Ethan mounts a show that wows the art world, and then a retired NYPD detective tells him that the cherubs that form the drawings center are the faces of boys murdered some 40 years before, crimes that were never solved. Ethan is drawn into the detectives search for the killer, and the resolution of the mystery is closer to home than he can imagine. From its first hip, cynical, snarky, confessional pages, this deftly plotted novel rivets the reader. Its a mystery, but like the best crime fiction, it is much more. Its a family saga of penniless German Jewish immigrants whose toil and determination make them American royals. Its a meditation on loneliness, genius, and the line between genius and madness. And its a knowing, ironic, and at times, howlingly funny take on the art world. Kellerman, son of best-selling authors Jonathan and Faye, is a playwright, and he has a playwrights gift for creating fully fleshed, complex characters with distinctive voices. A must-buy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)