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The Death Artist by Jonathan Santlofer |
| (Harper Torch, $7.50, GV) ISBN 0-06-000442-8 |
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The Death Artist creates his masterpieces with the body parts of his victims. He is careful with detail, always imitating a great artist’s work. The prospective reader should be warned that, in places, The Death Artist is graphic, gritty and gory. In fact, it is gratuitously gory in some instances.
The prologue sets the scene with the murderer at work. Quickly one understands that this creature is not sane, as he flips in and out of rationality. Abruptly the scene changes (and this abruptness is something the reader must get accustomed to, as almost all the author’s scene changes are without any segue), and we are introduced to Kate McKinnon Rothstein. An art history major in college, Kate had been a cop for 10 years. She was wearying of that when she met and married multimillionaire Richard Rothstein. Returning to college, she acquired a PhD in art history. Thereafter she wrote a best seller, did a talk show, and started a foundation for kids at risk. This is about all one ever really knows about Kate, as intimacy of any kind with any of her friends and loved ones is totally missing. Among the stated loved ones are Willie and Elana, aspiring artists whom she has figuratively adopted through her foundation work. Elana is savagely murdered and Willie is the first on scene. This makes him an immediate suspect. Partly to protect him and partly to avenge Elana, Kate pushes her way back to the investigative world, relying on her past contacts in the department and FBI friends for assistance. As murders keep happening it is Kate who concludes that, even with the different styles of murder, it is only one serial killer who emulates great artists. The concept of the plot is certainly original, and since the author is an artist as well, one can rely on the very informative bits of art history that become part of the plot. This is the very best feature of the book. However, it is a pity that the author uses such a wide brush painting artists in general as driven by greed rather than by some modicum of inspiration to create beauty in some form. Kate begins to see that the killer’s focus is on her and the novel matures in a too predictable fashion. In addition, the journey through the rising tension is made difficult by the short choppy sentences , the hasty scene changes, the unrelenting pace, and the one dimensional characters.
--Thea Davis |
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