Art Crime (fiction)
Dive into the thrilling world of art crime fiction with our curated list of gripping books. Explore heists, forgeries, and mysteries in top-rated novels that blend suspense, intrigue, and masterful storytelling.
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Chasing Cezanne
by Peter Mayle
Hanky-panky on the international art scene is the source of the hilarity and fizz in Peter Mayle's new novel. He flies us back to the south of France (a region some readers of his irresistible best-sellers believe him to have invented), on a wild chase through galleries, homes of prominent collectors, and wickedly delectable restaurants. There are stopovers in the Bahamas and England, and in New York, where that glossiest of magazines, Decorating Quarterly, reflects the cutting-edge trendiness of its editor, Camilla Jameson Porter. (Camilla has recently broken new ground in the world of power lunches by booking two tables on the same day, and shuttling between them, at the city's trendiest restaurant.) It is Camilla who has sent our hero, Andre Kelly, to Cap Ferrat to take glamorous photo-graphs of the houses and treasures of the rich, famous, and fatuous. He happens to have his camera at the ready when he spots a CĂ©zanne being loaded onto a plumber's truck near the home of an absent collector. Odd, thinks Andre. And in no time he's on the trail of a state-of-the-art art scam, chasing CĂ©zanne. It's a joy to follow him and the crowds intent on speeding or foiling his quest--including a beautiful agent; a super-savvy art dealer attracted to the finer things in life, especially if they promise the payoff of a lifetime; an awesome Dutch forger; some outstandingly greedy New York sophisticates; and, invisible in the background, the parade of remarkable chefs whose mouthwatering culinary masterpieces periodically soothe the hero and tantalize the reader of Chasing CĂ©zanne.
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The Music Lesson
by Katharine Weber
Patricia Dolan is alone with a stolen Vermeer painting in an Irish cottage by the sea. How she got here is part of the story she tells us: about her father, a Boston cop; the numbing loss of her daughter; and her charming Irish cousin, who has led her to this high-stakes crime. Her vigil becomes a tale of love, regret, and transformation. As Patricia immerses herself in the passions of her Irish heritage, she discovers what has been hidden beneath the surface of her own life--and what she must do to preserve the things she values most.
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Night Train to Memphis
by Elizabeth Peters
An assistant curator of Munich's National Museum, Vicky Bliss is no expert on Egypt, but she does have a Ph.D. in solving crimes. So when an intelligence agency offers her a luxury Nile cruise if she'll help solve a murder and stop a heist of Egyptian antiquities, all 5'11" of her takes the plunge. Vicky suspects the authorities really want her to lead them to her missing lover, the art thief and master of disguises she knows only as "Sir John Smythe." And right in the shadow of the Sphinx she spots him. . . with his new flame. Vicky is so furious at this romantic stab-in-the-back, not to mention the sudden arrival of her meddling boss, Herr Dr. Schmidt, that she may overlook a danger as old as the pharaohs and as unchanging. . . a criminal who hides behind a mask of charm while moving in for the kill.
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Giotto's Hand
by Iain Pears
The author of the historical novel, "An Instance of the Fingerpost, " pens this intriguing mystery about an English art dealer on the trail of a criminal mastermind responsible for a series of major heists.
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The Last Judgement
by Iain Pears
When a tacky painting in his possession is linked to a series of murders, art dealer Jonathan Argyll must investigate the dark secrets in the painting's past--before someone with truly horrible taste decides to put him out of the picture for good. "Pears knows what he's talking about and tells a rollicking good yarn."--"Boston Globe."
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Death and Restoration
by Iain Pears
A novel about an Italian general who tries to prevent the theft of a painting being restored in a monastery.
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The Immaculate Deception
by Iain M Pears, M.D
This seventh novel in the series featuring art historian Jonathan Argyll begins as Jonathan's new wife, Italian Art Theft Squad leader Flavia di Stefano, is under pressure to find a painting stolen en route from the Louvre to Rome. Meanwhile, Jonathan investigates a Renaissance painting of the Immaculate Conception, owned by Flavia's retired mentor.
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The Bernini Bust
by Iain Pears
A bust of Pope Pius V is smuggled out of Italy by a California museum owner and subsequently he is murdered. Art historian Jonathan Argyll calls on his old sweetheart, Flavia di Stefano of the Italian national art theft fund, to join him in Los Angeles to find the bust and the killer. By the author of The Titian Committee.
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Loot
by Aaron Elkins
American art historian Ben Revere braves assassins while searching Europe for a shipment of art stolen by the Nazis in World War II. One of the paintings, a Velazquez, surfaced in Boston where it was sold to a pawnbroker for one hundred dollars. By the author of Twenty Blue Devils.
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A Glancing Light
by Aaron Elkins
When a priceless stolen masterpiece is discovered among a shipment of reproductions to a Seattle art musuem, the mild mannered, law-abiding curator, Chris Norgren, reluctantly agrees to find out how the painting got there. All too soon, what should have been a pleasant interlude in Italy turns into a bizarre odyssey into shady art world doings and deadly secrets.... "A remarkable storyteller....I look forward to reading more exploits of this appealing sleuth." MYSTERY NEWS
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A Deceptive Clarity
by Aaron J. Elkins
First time in paperback--a marvelous mystery by an Edgar Award-winning author, featuring more of art curator/detective Chris Norgren. Chris heads to Berlin to mount a sensational exhibit of Old Masters, but soon he must find a fake among the masterpieces . . . and a real killer as well.