The Art of Murder: A Nestor Pike Noir Satire Mystery Book

Welcome to THE ART OF MURDER, a world of high-class art theft, museum high-jinx, high-powered money brokers, foreign intrigue, and, of course, murder. This weighty, smartly plotted little novel is an inventive, intelligent, and hugely entertaining genre-buster--a spirited send-up with contemporary dimensions unusual in noir. It'ss an imaginative blend of sphincter-clenching suspense, clever dialogue, and comic observation. A hard-boiled narrator with a soft-boiled way, Nestor Pike'ss indomitably intuitive character and ever-resourceful wit drives this irresistible page-turner right through the heart from beginning to end. You laugh, you cry, you love these guys. This tale has it all, action, mystery, romance, and transformation. THE ART OF MURDER is distributed through Biblio Distribution, Ingram, and Baker & Taylor.

Library Journal

Two thugs show up in Nestor Pike's office. They tell him not to continue in an investigation, then beat him up and leave. The trouble is that Pike has no idea what they mean. Then a police detective friend involves him in the strange murder of an art museum director. The man was crushed under the weight of a statue he was about to unveil to the world. West (whose first novel, Dream of the Great Blue, was not a mystery) has written a suspenseful, hard-boiled whodunit in the style of Raymond Chandler. Using the tough-guy attributes from the Fifties mixed with the attitude of modern urban criminals, he has created a well-plotted tale to be savored. Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.