Spiral

by Joseph Geary

Book Overview

Nicholas Greer is a writer who's broke and on the verge of divorce. The life of Frank Spira, the controversial painter he's been researching for six years, has become more real to him than his own.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1400031923
• ISBN13: 9781400031924
• Release Date: July 2004
• Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

An excellent read.

It is an excellent read. I enjoyed it very much.

Satisfying on all counts

This yarn keeps you guessing for a long time, which is what one hopes for in such a novel. The characters are well developed and unique, and the action proceeds at a rapid pace without sacrificing the detail needed to draw the reader into the scene. The writing is good enough to pose no distraction. For a first-timer, this author is remarkably skilled. Alfred Hitchcock would love this story line and its compelling McGuffin.

A smashing debut! Now when's his next book coming out?

Richer than Croesus and sicker than Lazarus, Laverne Taubman prefers to die slowly from gum infections rather than allow anyone to look inside her mouth. After the bizarre murder of painter Frank Spira's former lover, Jacob Grossman, obsessed Spira biographer Nicholas Greer learns that Taubman may hold clues to Spira's missing and mysterious masterwork, Incarnation.Greer is ushered to Taubman's bedside hoping for answers, but receives only anger as Taubman becomes incensed over the same subject that caused Grossman to break his own nose against a mirror. Her last words to him about Incarnation --- "He died for it, and you will, too" --- nonetheless fail to convince the less-than-successful writer to cease his search for the painting.Taubman is just one of the finely detailed characters in Joseph Geary's assured first novel, SPIRAL. Another is Tony Reardon, who is also one of the "Spira's Lovers" Greer contracts to write about for the New York Times. Still another is the shabby police officer who interviews Greer since he was Grossman's last visitor and made a recording of their conversation. When the NYPD target Greer as a suspect, everyone soon realizes that the shabby officer was someone completely different.It's difficult to describe any other steps in or stages of Geary's plot without threatening to rob readers of their own pleasure in being sucked into his fictional vortex. The author combines a chilling study of high-stakes high art dealing with a murder mystery, an action story, and a portrait of an artist as a young madman --- not to mention the portrait of another artist, Greer, watching his life and psyche unravel as his involvement with Incarnation deepens.Broke and alone (his wife leaves him early on), Greer has been researching Spira for six years. With his 900-page biography finished and on an important publisher's desk, he at last stands the chance of success. But after interviewing the long-missing Grossman and learning that a work Spira created in Tangier in 1957 may still exist, Nick uncovers a series of sex, lies, and even videotape (well, 8mm film). As he begins to understand the significance of Spira's great work, he also comes under scrutiny from Oscar Nagel, an important Spira collector.Geary keeps the pace up, moving between New York, London and Tangier, as Greer becomes more entangled in shady art-world dealings and more confused by Spira's even shadier past. So often, suspense and thriller protagonists are fabulously polished humans destined to meet and love other fabulously polished specimens of the opposite sex during their adventures. Nicholas Greer is anything but polished; he would be more accurately described as shambling and disheveled. He is also disorganized, jealous of the competition, and ill-prepared for the events and people he encounters.Geary also manages a delicate balance between scenes of Greer's search, the NYPD's investigation, and Nagel's machinations, alternating scenes of furious momentum with thos

insightful art mystery w a clever biography subplot

London biographer Nick Greer sees the finish line on the definitive biography of controversial artist Frank Spira. However, he soon learns the key source of insight into the life of the long deceased artist, his alleged lover, Jacob Grossman, still lives in Manhattan. An excited Nick visits Jacob who provides one revelation that holds the presses. The Incarnation, considered by many the epitome of Spira's career was not destroyed in 1957, but probably still exists.Not long after his interview, Nick learns that someone murdered Grossman. The police lean towards Nick killing Grossman though the motive is unclear. Nick obsesses over finding the painting, but also wants to stop the murderer who has killed other Spira associates, but "the collector" has different plans that include using Nick to obtain the Incarnation for him.This is an exciting mystery that works on several levels that include an intriguing serial killer who-done-it, a clever biography subplot, and an insightful art mystery. Nick is a great protagonist, whose obsessive personality is costing him his personal life, leading to the audience to wonder when he will get a real life. Anyone who reads this superb debut novel will feel sorry for author Joseph Geary because improving on this tale seems impossible.Harriet Klausner