Eakin's Mistress: A Jamie Ramsgill Mystery

Plot entanglements abound as Bradberry returns, after Ruins of Civility, to blend mysteries of art and architecture with mysteries of murder and blackmail. The day that architect Jamie Ramsgill is to interview at the prestigious architecture firm Laycutt/Farr, his friend David Laycutt disappears suddenly after withdrawing $75,000 from the company account. The only clue is a letter postmarked from Jim Thorpe, Pa. While Tod Farr, the firm's other partner, tries to keep things under control, Ramsgill offers to find Laycutt. At the same time, Ramsgill's sister-in-law, Cate Chew, who's about to become the new curator of American art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, has authenticated a nearly unknown painting by Thomas Eakins. Ramsgill finds that the provenance of the painting and the disappearance of Laycutt are linked, and soon he is running from a murder scene, convinced that Laycutt committed the crime but equally convinced that the police will pin it on him if they catch him. Bradberry delivers a fast-paced novel, but cursory atmospherics and too many unsatisfying twists at the end will make readers wonder what all the hurry was for. (May)