Everett Aison Artrage

Artrage

Everett Aison

Pleasure Boat Studio, Dec 2005, $16.00, 232 pp.

ISBN 1929355254

Since he was a boy, Mace Caslon loved art and although he couldn't draw, he became a well known collector. He works as a lawyer in a fancy and powerful art firm that allows him to indulge in his hobby of collecting paintings. At a New York auction Cora and Simon Nobel make their dream come true when they buy Picasso's Universal Woman for forty one million dollars. They are going to loan it to the Metropolitan Museum for two weeks so the public can view the rarely seen picture.

Mace is one of the visitors but instead of appreciating the masterpiece, he destroys it by throwing acid on it. He is arrested and everyone including the police wants to know why a man who had everything risks going to jail to destroy a painting. Even Mace isn't certain of the reason. His act causes a media frenzy and a high profile lawyer asks to represent him while the D.A. thinks Mace is his ticket to higher office. When the trial gets underway, no one is certain what will happen, especially his lawyer and the D.A. because of the resulting publicity. One thing is for sure, this will be no ordinary trial.

The protagonist remains a distant figure so it is hard for the reader to understand why he committed such a crime. The enigmatic quality of Mace propels differing factions of society to ascribe their own theories to him. His one deep relationship with the young son of his ex-lover has such a strong rendering quality that readers feel for Mace even though they don't understand or empathize with him. The mysterious Mace makes this thriller worth reading.

Harriet Klausner