A stolen work of art.
An FBI agent with an unusual gift for peering into the past.
A killer who claims to be descended from Rembrandt himself.
Ann Yang has traded in her scrubs, autopsy saws, and body bags for an FBI badge. Her first case involves tracking down a Rembrandt etching stolen on a windswept October day from a local museum in New Hope, Pennsylvania.
Making a statement about religion and art, the brazen thief taunts police and the Feds by digging up a grave and leaving the old bones of a nun on the banks of the Delaware Canal. Her bony fingers clutch a Polaroid of the missing Rembrandt etching, titled The Fall of Man, and he tells them he will make a fresh kill soon. The chase is on to find the etching and stop a killer as Ann and her FBI partner George Patrick track down clues in a town known for its eccentric artists. The case becomes personal when Ann undergoes hypnosis and remembers being the nun who died under mysterious circumstances in 1926 at a nearby convent, where the twenties weren't so roaring. Ann's investigation will lead her to a revelation about Rembrandt...a secret kept for over 350 years. Is it possible she left clues for herself in the past?
Finalist
Assessment:
Plot: Jameson delivers a sophisticated mystery that includes a titillating breadcrumb trail of clues and doesn’t refrain from horrific crime scene descriptions. There is no “downtime” for Ann Yang and her steadfast team—or for a bloodthirsty and creatively deranged murderer. Past lives and a very creepy ancestral histories are presented through a series of illuminating flashbacks and journal entries that inventively serve to reveal the facts of the case.
Prose: Alluring detail and morbidly hilarious moments fill this voice-driven mystery; Jameson’s writing is sharp, witty, and evocative, while the integration of journal entries offers rich narrative texture.
Originality: Jameson gifts readers with an art history-infused narrative that breaks the mystery genre mold as a mad painter descends into darkness. The riveting novel will appeal to both mystery moguls and history buffs alike.
Character Development: Jameson fleshes out the novel’s characters with meticulous focus, whether they are agents in the field or behind-the-scenes, corpses on the table or in the history records, or a killer establishing a cryptic legacy. Readers are exposed to a multitude of unique backstories that contextualize the criminal acts at the heart of the story.
Blurb: Kelly Jameson’s A Lady and Gentleman in Black is a riveting, blood-curdling mystery, replete with exciting red herrings, that will appeal to both fans of the genre, as well as those intrigued by art history.
Date Submitted: April 08, 2018
