The Girl in the Face of the Clock

Fans of Mathes's three previous stand-alone ""girl"" mysteries (The Girl at the End of the Line, etc.) will relish his latest glittering offering set in the cut-throat New York art world. Eight years after her painter father, Aaron Sailor, went into a coma after falling downstairs in their Soho loft, theater choreographer Jane Sailor receives word that Aaron has unexpectedly begun to talk and has asked to see her. Reluctantly, she makes the trip from her home in Cincinnati to the Long Island hospital caring for the patient. There her father mutters that his fall was no accident. Determined to learn the truth, Jane takes a job in Manhattan with wealthy eccentric Perry Mannerback, rare clock collector and owner of the only painting Aaron ever sold, a canvas of a naked woman sitting on the same staircase where the artist fell. Between her legs is a hideous ceramic clock with no hands. When Aaron dies under suspicious circumstances after Perry pays for his transfer to a Manhattan hospital, Jane is convinced that the clock in the painting holds the key to his death. After flying to London to trace the clock's origins, she finds that stage combat isn't necessarily the best training for the real thing. The author's art expertise (he's the director of a New York gallery) helps propel the breezy, improbable plot. Witty dialogue and an engaging male romantic interest whom Jane meets on the plane to London add to the fun. Agent, Meredith Bernstein. (Apr. 16)