An Exquisite Corpse

by Helen A. Harrison

Overview

Murder is a work of art...

When the acclaimed Cuban painter Wifredo Lam turns up dead in his Greenwich Village studio, officers Juanita Diaz and Brian Fitzgerald of the NYPD, must investigate the crime. But what they find is much more gruesome than they ever could have imagined.

Suspicion soon falls on a tight-knit circle of Surrealist refugees who fled Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II, and Diaz and Fitzgerald must traverse the city, from Chinatown's underworld to Spanish Harlem's gangland, to find the truth. Did one of the artists' bizarre parlor games turn deadly? Or is there something even more sinister afoot?

"Smart, witty, filled with so much history of the period, beautifully written, and suspenseful."—Jonathan Santlofer, author of The Death Artist

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781728214009
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	07/07/2020
Series:	Art of Murder Mysteries Series , #1
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	619,128
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 6.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Helen A. Harrison, a former art reviewer and feature writer for The New York Times and visual arts commentator for National Public Radio, is the director of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in East Hampton, New York, and an authority on 20th century American art. A native of New York City with a bachelor's degree in studio art from Adelphi University, she also attended the Art Students League, the Brooklyn Museum Art School and Hornsey College of Art in London before receiving a master's degree in art history from Case Western Reserve University. Among her many publications are exhibition catalogs, essays, book chapters, reviews and articles, and several non-fiction books, including Hamptons Bohemia: Two Centuries of Artists and Writers on the Beach, co-authored with Constance Ayers Denne, and monographs on Larry Rivers and Jackson Pollock. She and her husband, the artist Roy Nicholson, live in Sag Harbor, New York. www.helenharrison.net.

Editorial Reviews

05/04/2020

Set in 1943 New York City, this intriguing if uneven first in a trilogy from art historian Harrison (Such Desperate Joy: Imagining Jackson Pollack) focuses on the fictional murder of Afro-Cuban Chinese artist Wilfredo Lam, a surrealist who actually died in Paris in 1982. Lam’s body is staged in his Greenwich Village apartment according to the principles of a surrealist party game called Exquisite Corpse, which points the finger at members of the art community, but are they being framed? The cops are stumped as they dig into Lam’s complex heritage to solve the mystery. The cast includes such real-life figures as Peggy Guggenheim and Lee Krasner, but the sheer number of characters can make the story difficult to follow. As a result, original characters like Cuban American police officer Juanita Diaz are underserved as the novel takes the reader on a twisty ride through various New York immigrant communities. Harrison is at her best depicting the New York art world at a precarious time and its dependence on wealthy patrons for survival. That alone is worth the price of admission. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"Harrison is at her best depicting the New York art world at a precarious time and its dependence on wealthy patrons for survival. That alone is worth the price of admission." - Publishers Weekly

"Harrison is at her best depicting the New York art world at a precarious time and its dependence on wealthy patrons for survival. That alone is worth the price of admission." - Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

2020-04-13
Surreal shenanigans surround the murder of a prominent Cuban painter.

New York, 1943. French writer Andre Breton discovers the body of his friend Wifredo Lam at Lam's apartment on West 10th Street in Greenwich Village. Uncertain how to proceed, Breton goes to his friend Roberto Matta’s place, where he enlists Marcel Duchamp to check out the scene. After reporting the body at the 6th Precinct, the duo spend most of the wee hours dictating statements. As Harrison’s focus shifts to the murder probe, readers follow married detectives Juanita Diaz and Brian Fitzgerald and a team of cops as they unravel the case and dip entertainingly into Manhattan’s vibrant subcultures. Fitz and Diaz go to East Harlem to question “spiritual advisor” Madame Carmen, who knows everyone in the city, about the background of Lam, a Cuban national. Meanwhile, a cop named Dillon is watching the Chilean Matta, who knows more than he’s told police. He and his friend David Hare discuss a certain important package in the possession of Carlos Solana, who was freaked out to discover Lam’s corpse before Breton did. Harrison’s short, brisk chapters keep the action moving from cons to cops to colorful characters in between. As the case becomes increasingly tangled, the path to its solution runs through Midtown, Chinatown, and elsewhere, and the cast of real art-world characters expands to include Lee Krasner, Max Ernst, and more.

Harrison writes with panache, mixing real artists with her vivid creations.

Kirkus Reviews

Read More