Author(s): Jose Carlos Somoza (tr Nick Caistor)

Fiction

Murder is not a science. It's an artform. Welcome to an art scene where realism has gone one step further, where each painting is literally alive, where the model for each masterpiece is the canvas itself. And for the beautiful men and women queuing up for the privilege - to be painted and posed, bought and rented by collectors - there is one artist they are all drawn to: the mysterious Dutch master, Bruno Van Tysch. Then a young female model, Annek Hollek, is abducted and killed, viciously murdered in a most gruesome fashion. The detectives assigned to the case, April Wood and Lothar Bosch, may have little interest in modern art, but they are going to have to acquire an appreciation extremely quickly. Because Van Tysch is about to launch a major exhibition in Amsterdam - the imitation of thirteen of Rembrandt's masterpieces - and the rumours are that the killer is about to strike again . . .