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Joanna Stark #2
There Hangs the Knife
Joanna Stark, art lover and part owner of an art security firm, has devised a daring plan to recover two valuable stolen paintings. Here scheme will also entrap one of the world's greatest art thieves - a man with whom she shares a passionate and violent past. But when she finds an unidentified corpse in her friend's London flat, Joanna realizes her best-laid plans have gone murderously awry. Plunging deep into Britain's fabulous art world and terrifying underworld, Joanna must confront her nightmare past as she races to recover the paintings, and stay alive in the bargain.
211 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1988
4 people are currently reading
120 people want to read
About the author
Marcia Muller
165 books731 followersMarcia Muller is an American author of mystery and thriller novels.
Muller has written many novels featuring her Sharon McCone female private detective character. Vanishing Point won the Shamus Award for Best P.I. Novel. Muller had been nominated for the Shamus Award four times previously.
In 2005, Muller was awarded the Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master award.
She was born in Detroit, Michigan, and grew up in Birmingham, Michigan, and graduated in English from the University of Michigan and worked as a journalist at Sunset magazine. She is married to detective fiction author Bill Pronzini with whom she has collaborated on several novels.
Muller has written many novels featuring her Sharon McCone female private detective character. Vanishing Point won the Shamus Award for Best P.I. Novel. Muller had been nominated for the Shamus Award four times previously.
In 2005, Muller was awarded the Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master award.
She was born in Detroit, Michigan, and grew up in Birmingham, Michigan, and graduated in English from the University of Michigan and worked as a journalist at Sunset magazine. She is married to detective fiction author Bill Pronzini with whom she has collaborated on several novels.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 5, 2020
This story was ok. It had a good plot and left the ending open to a sequel. Joanna, a woman with a checkered past, is now leading a respectable life and is after an art thief, who happens to also be from her past. Joanna, for personal reasons, combined with the art world issues, is after one of the top art thieves. Using her connections to the past she undertakes to trap the thief. As the story unfolds we find out just how wrong the best laid plans could be. A pleasant read, but not sure I am inspired enough to look into the possible sequel to this story.
April 25, 2020
I don't know what it is, but I don't particularly like the main characters that Marcia Muller creates.
I've read several of Muller's Sharon McCone books and McCone seems to slowly becoming more of a realistic character, but in the second book of the Joanna Stark series, I've got the same feeling that I'm being forced into accepting a character that is not quite real, not particularly likable and for all her supposed smarts is acting rather stupid.
First Stark's an art lover and part owner of an art security firm but she can't seem to capture her ex-lover whose an art thief. So she decides on an elaborate scheme to draw out the thief with a fake painting — a scheme that she has told a whole lot of people about. And everyone Stark talks to seems to be particularly blind to all the weaknesses in her plan. And the plan appears to go bad almost immediately.
But Stark persists in trying to rectify it, endangering others.
This is a weak premise to begin with, a sad and disappointing solution and a cast of characters I don't like at all. I am disappointed that this author can't seem to come up with a stronger, smarter female character for this series.
I've read several of Muller's Sharon McCone books and McCone seems to slowly becoming more of a realistic character, but in the second book of the Joanna Stark series, I've got the same feeling that I'm being forced into accepting a character that is not quite real, not particularly likable and for all her supposed smarts is acting rather stupid.
First Stark's an art lover and part owner of an art security firm but she can't seem to capture her ex-lover whose an art thief. So she decides on an elaborate scheme to draw out the thief with a fake painting — a scheme that she has told a whole lot of people about. And everyone Stark talks to seems to be particularly blind to all the weaknesses in her plan. And the plan appears to go bad almost immediately.
But Stark persists in trying to rectify it, endangering others.
This is a weak premise to begin with, a sad and disappointing solution and a cast of characters I don't like at all. I am disappointed that this author can't seem to come up with a stronger, smarter female character for this series.
November 11, 2019
Joanna Stark is part owner of an art security firs and and art lover. In her early years she spent time in the London art scene, meeting a variety of people — good and bad.
Two very valuable art pieces have been stolen and she thinks she know who the theif is. She comes up with a scheme to trap the thief using another piece of art. Her capturing this well-known theif isn't just to get the pieces back — there is a very personal reason that comes from her past.
Finding a dead man at a location she expected to find the thief, starts her on a trail into the art underworld and on detours from her original plans. It is not just a matter of stolen art, it is also violent murders.
Stark is not afraid of taking chances and is bold in going after what she wants. What sometimes trips her up are flashback to parts of her past and dealing with them. Some of the people she is dealing with were part of her past.
The story moved along and kept me wanting to keep reading.
Two very valuable art pieces have been stolen and she thinks she know who the theif is. She comes up with a scheme to trap the thief using another piece of art. Her capturing this well-known theif isn't just to get the pieces back — there is a very personal reason that comes from her past.
Finding a dead man at a location she expected to find the thief, starts her on a trail into the art underworld and on detours from her original plans. It is not just a matter of stolen art, it is also violent murders.
Stark is not afraid of taking chances and is bold in going after what she wants. What sometimes trips her up are flashback to parts of her past and dealing with them. Some of the people she is dealing with were part of her past.
The story moved along and kept me wanting to keep reading.
October 15, 2019
1988 is the copyright date for this book, so long ago, it doesn't have a barcode.
It is an interesting mystery set in England. The heroin is a female detective from California whose specialty is art theft. It involves revenge and many former acquaintances from her life in London. Marcia Muller has written other female detective novels staring a different heroin. I'll try to find others she's written.
It is an interesting mystery set in England. The heroin is a female detective from California whose specialty is art theft. It involves revenge and many former acquaintances from her life in London. Marcia Muller has written other female detective novels staring a different heroin. I'll try to find others she's written.
October 6, 2017
An intriguing heroine, art, the seedy underbelly of the Falmouth waterfront and shocking twist at the end all conspire to make a taut, pulse-pounding read!
February 2, 2024
A mystery full of great plot twists and an author who knows how to craft a page-turner.
November 6, 2015
"All right," she said, "I agree that revenge has always been around and is probably here to stay. What else is fascinating about it?"
A long pause. "I'd say the consequences. They're almost always bad."
There Hangs a Knife (1988) is the second book in a trilogy by Marcia Muller which features art lover and co-owner of an art security firm, Joanna Stark. The short series revolves around her efforts to track down Anthony Parducci, a brilliant art thief who has managed to elude the authorities for years. Parducci is also Joanna's former lover and father of her son. Joanna is determined to catch the master criminal as well as deal him a hefty dose of revenge for the pain he's caused her over the years.
This time she thinks she has the perfect plan. There have been several recent thefts of Pieter Bruegel paintings in his famous Proverbs Series. Joanna is sure that Parducci is behind the disappearances and commissions a painting that could be passed off as a recently discovered member of the series. There's no way the daring art thief will be able to resist the temptation. She calls on favors from various connections in the London art world and underworld, arranges for a member of New Scotland Yard to be prepared to aid in the capture, and her plans are set.
But when she finds an unidentified corpse in her friend's apartment and discovers her friend has disappeared with the painting, she realizes that her crarefully laid plans have gone murderously awry. The more she tries to untangle the mess, the more she realizes that revenge carries a heavy cost. She better hope it won't cost her life as well. If she stays out of danger long enough to recover the painting and spring the trap on Parducci, will revenge be as sweet as she hopes? And will she have anything of value left afterward?
"We concluded--or at least I concluded--that revenge entails terrible costs. It diminishes one, Joanna. But I suppose our friendship was one of the costs you were prepared to pay."
Joanna reminds me a bit of Ahab. She's very single-minded in her mission--not to kill a whale, but to take down the man who hurt her and tried to destroy her life with her son. She goes through a period where it just doesn't matter whose friendship she loses and what price she has to pay. She must see Parducci behind bars. This gives the book a much darker flavor than most mysteries I read. Written in the 1980s, it definitely represents a step towards the troubled, introspective detectives that seem to flourish in current crime fiction.
After reading The Cavalier in White (first book of the series) and finding it to be a solid beginning, I had hopes that Muller would build on this foundation to provide an even better outing in book two. Despite the fact that I like the character of Joanna and this is fast-paced novel with plenty of double-dealing and double-crossing with a high-powered confrontation scene at the end, it didn't seem to me that there was much advancement in the story-telling. There is little mystery--it's quite obvious what's happened as soon as the dead man appears and the painting disappears--and the ending is obviously left open-ended so we could have the third book in the trilogy. Joanna shows some growth over the course of the novel, which is promising, and I hope that book three fulfills the promise in storytelling that I can see glimpses of in the first two. ★★★ for another solid outing with interesting characters and plenty of action.
First posted on my blog
A long pause. "I'd say the consequences. They're almost always bad."
There Hangs a Knife (1988) is the second book in a trilogy by Marcia Muller which features art lover and co-owner of an art security firm, Joanna Stark. The short series revolves around her efforts to track down Anthony Parducci, a brilliant art thief who has managed to elude the authorities for years. Parducci is also Joanna's former lover and father of her son. Joanna is determined to catch the master criminal as well as deal him a hefty dose of revenge for the pain he's caused her over the years.
This time she thinks she has the perfect plan. There have been several recent thefts of Pieter Bruegel paintings in his famous Proverbs Series. Joanna is sure that Parducci is behind the disappearances and commissions a painting that could be passed off as a recently discovered member of the series. There's no way the daring art thief will be able to resist the temptation. She calls on favors from various connections in the London art world and underworld, arranges for a member of New Scotland Yard to be prepared to aid in the capture, and her plans are set.
But when she finds an unidentified corpse in her friend's apartment and discovers her friend has disappeared with the painting, she realizes that her crarefully laid plans have gone murderously awry. The more she tries to untangle the mess, the more she realizes that revenge carries a heavy cost. She better hope it won't cost her life as well. If she stays out of danger long enough to recover the painting and spring the trap on Parducci, will revenge be as sweet as she hopes? And will she have anything of value left afterward?
"We concluded--or at least I concluded--that revenge entails terrible costs. It diminishes one, Joanna. But I suppose our friendship was one of the costs you were prepared to pay."
Joanna reminds me a bit of Ahab. She's very single-minded in her mission--not to kill a whale, but to take down the man who hurt her and tried to destroy her life with her son. She goes through a period where it just doesn't matter whose friendship she loses and what price she has to pay. She must see Parducci behind bars. This gives the book a much darker flavor than most mysteries I read. Written in the 1980s, it definitely represents a step towards the troubled, introspective detectives that seem to flourish in current crime fiction.
After reading The Cavalier in White (first book of the series) and finding it to be a solid beginning, I had hopes that Muller would build on this foundation to provide an even better outing in book two. Despite the fact that I like the character of Joanna and this is fast-paced novel with plenty of double-dealing and double-crossing with a high-powered confrontation scene at the end, it didn't seem to me that there was much advancement in the story-telling. There is little mystery--it's quite obvious what's happened as soon as the dead man appears and the painting disappears--and the ending is obviously left open-ended so we could have the third book in the trilogy. Joanna shows some growth over the course of the novel, which is promising, and I hope that book three fulfills the promise in storytelling that I can see glimpses of in the first two. ★★★ for another solid outing with interesting characters and plenty of action.
First posted on my blog
January 16, 2013
#2 in the Joanna Stark series. Joanna is off to London in pursuit of the art thief who fathered her son and deserted her two decades earlier. The book is rather dark with plot and counterplot, deceit and deception. Although I love Marcia Muller and her P.I. Sharon McCone, I found the plot device here rather simplistic - Joanna hears of the theft of Brueghels paintings in a series, knows ex-lover Tony Parducci specializes in Flemish and Dutch paintings, commissions a fake Brueghels in the style of the series, and plants it in a London gallery so Parducci will come to steal it. Of course, nothing goes according to plan and so there really is an enjoyable story to be read.
Joanna Stark series - Joanna Stark, co-owner of an art security firm in San Francisco, comes to London to continue her vendetta against art thief Tony Parducci. A number of Brueghels, all part of a series, have been stolen, and Joanna suspects Parducci. She commissions a fake painting in the series to use as bait. She seeks help from friends from her past, one now an art dealer and the other, Matt Wickins, a fagin who controls art thieves. The plan goes awry, with the painting disappearing before schedule. The probable thief is found dead in Wickins's flat, but Joanna still feels Parducci is involved. She trails Wickins to Cornwall, where she has a confrontation with Parducci.
Joanna Stark series - Joanna Stark, co-owner of an art security firm in San Francisco, comes to London to continue her vendetta against art thief Tony Parducci. A number of Brueghels, all part of a series, have been stolen, and Joanna suspects Parducci. She commissions a fake painting in the series to use as bait. She seeks help from friends from her past, one now an art dealer and the other, Matt Wickins, a fagin who controls art thieves. The plan goes awry, with the painting disappearing before schedule. The probable thief is found dead in Wickins's flat, but Joanna still feels Parducci is involved. She trails Wickins to Cornwall, where she has a confrontation with Parducci.
December 7, 2010
Right, onto the second of the Joanna Stark books and most oddly it's set in England. It's very strange to find an author who paints me such ace pictures of California telling me about London and Cornwall. I had reservations and it's easy to pick holes in the locals ways of talking and acting but I think Muller did a decent job and after a while I got immersed in the story and stopped trying to split hairs with her.
Like the first book I don't think the plot would stand up to a thorough dissection but I'm not interested in giving it one. On a mission to catch the same art thief as in book one Joanna has trouble sorting out which of her friends and enemies are which. I'm off to reread book three and complete the series.
August 27, 2007
be sure to read this series in order - it doesn't seem to matter so much with her other series, but this one does. You miss out on some crucial details if you don't
March 7, 2009
She is one of my favorite mystery authors. I try to keep up with all her books.
December 31, 2010
This is part of a trilogy set in the art world, and I loved every one.
They are out-of-print and hard to find but worth the search and the wait.
They are out-of-print and hard to find but worth the search and the wait.
March 31, 2011
fast paced thoughtful
October 25, 2012
Really enjoyed this expertly crafted mystery. Good plot, interesting characters.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews