INCIDENT AT DEVIL'S FINGER

An art cop investigates a possible murder attempt in Witham’s crime novel, the second in a series.

Performance artist Magnifica—real name Mary Saville—has forged a reputation by parachuting into dramatic landscapes. The audience that gathers in Sedona, Arizona in June expects to see just that: the artist in her swoop parachute, landing at the base of the Devil’s Finger, one of the region’s dramatic red rock pinnacles. Instead, they witness an explosion that destroys the Devil’s Finger just before Magnifica leaps from the helicopter. Among the audience members is Julian Peale, who happens to be vacationing in Arizona with his wife, Priscilla. The former United States Navy man has made a second career as an “art cop,” employed at a tiny security firm that specializes in solving the myriad crimes of the art world. Peale’s company is hired to figure out who blew up the Finger, and why. Was it a Russian mob trying to send a message to Magnifica? Or is someone hoping to eliminate her as the heir to her mother’s significant estate? To find out, Peale will have to negotiate the hotel casinos of Las Vegas, the avant-garde art scene of Los Angeles, and the sharp-elbowed tech world of San Francisco. The trail leads to the Oracle of Fire, a Burning Man-like counterculture festival in the Nevada desert, where Magnifica plans to emerge from hiding to perform her greatest—and perhaps final—spectacle of all. Witham’s muscular prose reads like a series of raps on a locked door. Here Peale meets with the Russian art gallery owner Mikhail Federov: “Peale hoped the discussion would produce new insights about Magnifica. After all, it seemed like the Russian had been up to his ushanka, the Russian fur hat, in the world around the Saville women.” The characters are a bit too thin to sustain the webs of intrigue surrounding them, but Witham knows how to keep his story rolling through ever more arresting territory.

A gripping mystery set at the intersection of art, money, and power.