Spent Matches

Someone has set a fire at the Zigfield Art Museum in upper Manhattan. It’s a “locked room” kind of fire that couldn’t possibly have occurred. Or could it? Because of key control and alarms, nobody could have gotten into or out of the gallery to start the fire. But the controversial exhibition of Sarkin Zahedi’s gloomy, expressionist assemblages did indeed burn, and Wylie Nolan, assisted by attorney Max Bramble, has to reconstruct one of the most puzzling fires of his career.

There are plenty...