The Barnes & Noble Review Wedging himself stylistically between the gritty works of Michael Connelly and the high-octane plots of James Patterson, noted New York painter Jonathan Santlofer expands his palette to include the written word and cunningly crafts an absorbing portrait of obsession with The Death Artist, his debut thriller. Former New York cop Kate McKinnon lives a life of wealth and luxury she never would have dreamed possible. Following her marriage to an elite businessman, her post-police career as an art historian has skyrocketed her to fame and fortune. Her life is perfect, until a young woman is murdered and a close friend of Kate's becomes the prime suspect. Kate's old police instincts naturally reemerge as she delves into the case. Soon, two other murders related to the New York art world occur, and Kate finds that the killer—now known as "the Death Artist" — is communicating with her, leaving clues such as Polaroids and jumbled pieces of artwork. Somehow, Jacques-Louis David's famous painting The Death of Marat is at the heart of the murder spree, but how so? There are so many suspects among the large cast of characters, you'll never see the complex twists of plot coming in this intense first novel, which moves so quickly you might suffer friction burns turning the pages to keep up. Tom Piccirilli

Kate McKinnon is back—and this time it's personal. When two hideously eviscerated bodies are discovered and the only link between them is a bizarre painting left at each crime scene, the NYPD turns to former cop Kate McKinnon, the woman who brought the serial killer the Death Artist to justice. Having settled back into her satisfying life as art historian, published author, host of a weekly PBS television series, and wife of one of New York's top lawyers, Kate wants no part of it. But Kate's sense of tranquillity is shattered when this new sequence of murders strikes too close to home. With grief and fury to fuel her, she rejoins her former partner, detective Floyd Brown, and his elite homicide squad on the hunt for a vicious psychopath known as the Color-Blind Killer. In her rage and desperation, Kate allows herself to be drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse. She abandons her glamorous life for the gritty streets of Manhattan, immersing herself in a world where brutality and madness appear to be the norm, where those closest to her may have betrayed her—and where, in the end, nothing is what it seems.

Pub 2006-11-01 416 English HarperCollins US History and fiction collide with deadly consequences in the third Kate McKinnon novel-a story of bitter revenge. where the past invades the present and a decades-old secret proves fatal Kate McKinnon has lived many lives. from Queens cop to Manhattan socialite. television art historian. and the woman who helped the NYPD capture the Death Artist and the Color Blind killer. But thats the past. Now. devastated by the death of her husband. Kate is attempting to quietly rebuild her life as a single woman. Gone are the Park Avenue penthouse and designer clothes. Now its a funky Chelsea loft. downtown fashion. and even a hip new haircut as Kate plunges back into her work-writing a book about Americas most celebrated artistic era. the New York School of the 1940s and 50s. a circle that included Jackson Pol...