Special Recognition For ‘The Haunted Artist’ by Larry
Witham
2025-Release: Julian Peale Art-Crime Mystery, No. 4.
The death of Sam Mason, a young painter, shakes a small New England town.
Police say suicide. But his sister can't believe he would do such a thing. She
enlists the help of Castelli and Associates, which specializes in art crime,
and Julian Peale is on the case. With Sam gone, his paintings-seemingly lost,
hidden, or even a mirage--now stir a race to find out what happened, if not to
cash in on his legacy. Art dealers see Sam as a "late, great artist"
in the making. They're all after whatever of Sam's mysterious works they can
find. Delving into the artist's past, Peale traces the threads of Sam's life
across middle America, from Pittsburgh and Savannah to St. Louis and Atlanta.
As a struggling artist, it seems Sam had fallen into bad company, beginning with
a shady art dealer and then a small-time duo of Albanian crooks. Sam had also
been dabbling in the dark arts. Peale's investigation takes him to art schools,
urban scenes, the high-end art market, and a migrant community trying to do
good-except for a few gone bad. The missing paintings remain a puzzle until the
end, a time when bigger mysteries-and darker forces-unfold when least expected.