This quirky series continues ( and for some reason I ended up with a signed copy) with a prequel. This is actually the story of how Fred Taylor met Clayton Reed and how and why they formed their partnership.  Fred, who seems to be at loose ends, who is a veteran of Southeast Asia, is trawling Boston's Beacon Hill area when he comes upon a white haired elderly man getting out of a taxi with a younger man who appears to have violent intent.

 When he intervenes all three of them end up in the young man's apartment, which is filled with art of dubious origins. For some reason Fred feels a bond with Reed and feels the need to protect him from himself and this rather bizarre situation. Somehow Reed buys what appears to be a rather beat up chest from the young man and asks Taylor to help him take it to his Mountjoy home.  That is where it is reveal to Fred to be an unknown painting of Leonardo daVinci. Within days everyone seems to want that chest and Fred finds himself trying to untangle the art dealers from the murderers.

   This is a different Fred Taylor. I am finding these mysteries more exercises in educating the reader about a particular artist and the world of art dealing. That is the true mystery of these novels-the murdered individuals seem almost incidental. I'll rate this one a 6 -interesting but not all that interesting.