Seven years have passed since the brutal murder that tore Moe Prager's
family apart and it's been six years since Moe's brushed the dust off
his PI license. But when his estranged daughter Sarah comes to him with
a request he cannot refuse, Moe takes a deep breath and plunges back
into the icy, opaque waters of secrets and lies. Sashi Bluntstone, an
eleven-year-old art prodigy and daughter of Sarah's dearest childhood
friend, has been abducted. Three weeks into the investigation, the cops
have gotten nowhere and the parents have gotten desperate. Desperation,
the door through which Moe Prager always enters, swings wide open. Just
as in Sashi's paintings, there's much more to the case than one can see
at a glance.
With the help of an ex-football star, Moe stumbles around the fringes of
the New York art scene, trying to get a handle on where the art stops
and the commerce begins. Much to Moes surprise and disgust, he discovers
that Sashi is, on the one hand, revered as a cash cow and, on the other,
reviled as a fraud and a joke. Suspects abound beyond the usual
predators and pedophiles, for it is those closest to Sashi in life who
have the most to gain from her death. Cruel ironies lurk around every
corner, beneath every painting, and behind every door. Almost nothing is
what it seems.
Beware the innocent monster, for it need not hide itself and it lives
closely among us: sometimes as close as the mirror.
Reed Farrel Coleman's mysteries starring Moe Prager have won or been
nominated for many of the crime fiction world's biggest awards,
including the Edgar, the Shamus, the Barry, and the Anthony. The Moe
Prager mysteries were named as part of Maureen Corrigan's Best Books of
2009.
