The Ice Cream Shop Detective: An art mystery

Art forgery and murder are the last things Lissa Franklin expects to encounter when her hunt for interesting places to paint brings her to Tarrytown. Twenty miles up the Hudson River from Manhattan and the contemporary art scene Lissa wants to avoid, Tarrytown has a charming Main Street where she can set up her easel and paint, immersed in her subject, the way her beloved French Impressionists did. Charismatic cop Nick Bellini, whose family owns the ice cream shop she's painting, notices her expertise and asks her to be on the lookout for phony masterpieces he's heard are being made in town. She hesitates, afraid of being sued by unhappy art collectors, but takes the plunge after seeing a questionable Monet in the home of a local power couple. The danger goes from professional to personal when, responding to a vague request for help from another artist, she walks into his studio and finds him dead. Is there a link to the forgeries? Is someone in the arts community a killer? Will Lissa be the next target?

This is the first novel by artist/writer Ronnie Levine, who has been painting in the Hudson "Rivertowns" since 1998. Her paintings and prints are in many private collections. She has written numerous non-fiction articles about art and people in the arts, which have appeared in Westchester Magazine and local newspapers and news websites.