DEADLY ARTS

The lifeless body of quirky and evidently much hated artist Bechman Fitzwallington, ne Billy Wayne Farmer, is discovered by a neighbor in Nashville. Police Detective Hardy Seltzer is called to the scene. He observes the corpse, which “lay uncovered on a brass-framed bedstead. The hands were folded across a generous expanse of stomach, and a hint of a smile tugged at the corners of a mouth that all but disappeared beneath a big bush of ivory-white moustache.” There are no overt signs of foul play. Seltzer figures the older guy probably died of natural causes. The political higher-ups, anxious to promote Nashville’s burgeoning reputation as a center for the visual arts, are pushing the detective to declare that there is no case to investigate. But as Seltzer interviews the eccentric assortment of people in Fitzwallington’s inner circle (including his daughter, SalomeMe), he discovers there are many who had more than enough reason to welcome the unpleasant man’s demise. Seltzer shares his vague feelings of discontent with his friend Shane Hadley—affectionately referred to as “Sherlock Shane Hadley” by those who know of his famed investigative acumen. Shane’s storied career was derailed when a bullet landed in his thoracic spinal cord, leaving him restricted to a wheelchair. A devotee of Holmes’ deductive methodology—as well as of his own illegally imported special Oxford Lincoln College sherry—Shane still has the intellectual heft to helm an entertaining series that depends on cerebral rather than physical challenges. Brigham ensures that readers keep track of his wide array of strong characters by repeatedly using their full names throughout the amusing and unpredictable novel, lending a stylized background cadence to the polished prose. And he adds an extra level of intrigue by intertwining local personal grievances and the machinations of some elite New York art dealers with the “aging brain” research being conducted by Shane’s wife, Dr. Katya Karpov.

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