cover image Maker of Saints

Maker of Saints

Thulani Davis. Scribner Book Company, $22 (256pp) ISBN 978-0-684-81225-0

Clearly based on the 1985 death of N.Y.C. artist Ana Mendieta (for which her husband, sculptor Carl Andre, was widely deemed responsible although he was never convicted), Davis's new novel is a riveting crime story that enters some of the darker corners of the artistic soul. When beautiful performance artist Alex Decatur plunges to her death from her Manhattan apartment, her best friend, Cynthia ""Bird"" Kincaid, a young African American sound engineer and former painter, struggles to track down the killer. Years earlier, Alex ""gave birth to Bird the artist simply by being the first person to look at her paintings and see them as art."" Yet, it was Alex's white lover, art critic Frank Burton, who killed Bird's creative spark with a savage review. Because she overheard a violent argument between the couple just before Alex's death, Bird thinks that Frank killed Alex. The police, however, have ruled the incident a probable suicide. When Bird begins to catalogue Alex's work, she discovers the hidden life of her alluring friend. Then Bird is attacked at home by a masked intruder and seriously injured. With the help of a friend and a young married banker with whom she is having an affair, Bird uncovers a motive for murder. Stunned by the revelations, including the fact that Alex had appropriated some of Bird's experiences as her own, Bird sets a trap for Frank that propels the novel toward a dramatic conclusion. In the end, she must not only risk her life but also confront the demons that have bottled up her powers as an artist. Along the way, Davis (1959) reveals truths about what it takes to be an African-American artist in the city, and her narrative pulses with a multiethnic chorus of lively urban voices. (Oct.)