Dirty Linen

Praise for Dirty Linen... "A delightful series of mysteries" -Booklist A cache of old erotic paintings is purchased clandestinely at a benefit seaside auction under the noses of competing dealers and of Westport, Massachusetts, would-be high society. When word gets out that these pictures may illuminate the dark side of a major artist, Boston collector Clayton Reed and his agent Fred Taylor must provide a cloak of respectability for the collection and then protect it from the increasingly violent enthusiasm of others who suspect its value only after the sale. How did the late Lord Hanford come to have such pictures? What of his sudden death? What about that young and lovely American widow? As the nature of the collection is revealed, so too is its dubious history: from murder and double-dealing in the margins of the Boston and London art world, back through time until a shocking crime of Victorian prudery is laid bare. Fred Taylor embarks on his most complex, literate, and page-turning mystery to date. Nicholas Kilmer, former dean of the Swain School of Design in New Bedford, Massachusetts, makes his living in the art business. This is his fourth in his Fred Taylor Art Mystery series.