This novel started out very promising but somewhere along the middle it sort of veered off course and I am not quite sure what Kilmer was trying to say at the end. It sort of trails off to nowhere.

  Returning from Paris after a less than successful trip an elderly man collapses in front of Fred as they are leaving Logan Airport. After medical help arrives he returns to Clayton Reed's home and Fred's office with a French newspaper that he gives to Reed, since he is fluent in French. When Clay opens the newspaper he calls for Fred. It appears that the man had been carrying some medieval pages of a Bible.

  When Fred decides the he must find the man he finds out that he has died and that he was an artist-a performance artist who does things like make statements using landscapes named Jacob Geist. A conceptual artist of genius, he has been financed by a cult of chic greed presided over by a New York dealer without scruples. Soon everyone who is everyone wants the beautifully illuminated vellum sheet which is a fragment of a medieval text. Kilmer also introduces a bit of domestic drama into this one with Molly although ultimately it becomes much ado about nothing.

  I have been reading these in order of publication and it appears the next one is sort of a prequel. Because it started off well I will rate this one also a low 7 but I hope the next few are better plotted although Kilmert does introduce some interesting characters as he does with a book seller in this novel.  At tunes Kilmeris a pleasure to read with his unique style -other times it is hard to figure out where he is going with his story.