Finders Keepers

"Ronnie, Van Gogh is among the foremost of artists. Ever! And look what we've discovered. Near the end of his life he changed his style. In effect, he reversed his modernist approach and reverted to a more Impressionistic one. You can say a lot about his earlier work, it was raw, powerful, it was commanding, but it was not beautiful, at least not in the traditional sense. These paintings are beautiful!"

Peggy turned back to me, and gripping the painting by both sides, held it up for me to view.

"Do you see this?" she asked. "It's not that it's just beautiful. Do you feel the peace radiating from this; do you feel the contentment that it inspires? These aren't merely paintings, they're magic! I don't understand how he managed it." She continued, "It's like some sort of visual tranquilizer. It's not just me, is it? Do you feel it, too?"

She was right, these paintings commanded the power to elevate your mood. I'm not a religious man but something radiated in these works that brought you to a higher plane. They were magic...

When NYPD detective, Ronnie Mueller, is asked by his best friend, private investigator Joe D'Angelo, to look into the mugging death of a client's daughter, he thinks it will just be a waste of time. In a city the size of New York, muggers are usually caught at the scene of the crime or not at all.

But little by little Mueller begins to develop clues that will lead to the discovery of the largest cache of Impressionist paintings ever discovered. Along the way there are killers lurking, each looking to acquire the billions the art will bring when sold.