Thief of Light

by David Ramus

Corrupt Manhattan art dealer Adrian Sellars makes a fortune selling forgeries, and spends much of it feeding his heroin addiction. But when one of his artists is viciously murdered and a fake Monet deal goes terribly wrong, Adrian hits the streets in a frantic race to save his life. HarperCollins.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Stephen Selbst]

A fast-paced thriller set in New York's art world.

[Eireann Nolan]

kept wishing the main character was gunna die

[Heleen Posma]

Yes, this I like! This story is full of energy. In a fast and steady pace, Adrian Sellars grabs your hand in the first 50 pages and runs you through every inch and dark corner of the big art industry for the rest of the book. But don’t get too attached to the characters along the way, not everyone makes it out alive. Bummer! Art dealer Adrian tries to make it out of this New Yorkian thriller-killer-art-maze while being chased by a Japanese minotaur. Luckily for Adrian, his loyal secretary Devon picks up the slack and throws him a lifeline, a rope to grab onto and make it out of the maze alive. Dynamic, twisty and unpredictable. It was truly a joy to discover this storyline, which at times felt so realistic it could have been an autobiography. But then again, who knows, maybe it is? Well done, David Ramus.

[Christine Roff]

I enjoyed this book, another oldie out of my book stash, as the background was a bit different than a lot of books I read. Set in the New York art world with a key part of the story being forgeries that have fooled the experts. I found the detail around that quite fascinating. The main character is not that likeable at the start, being a heroin addict, but as he recovers and his behaviour improves dramatically, he grew on me. Fast and full of lots of action I found this an enjoyable read.

[Judith Gunn]

There are lots of characters and complicated stories in here: an unethical business, a former wife and a daughter, a new romance, a herd of Japanese criminals, the New York Police Department. As it is a thriller of sorts, I won't give you any details for fear of spoiling the experience. Let's just say it will keep you busy.

[Frank Consalvo]

Excellent thriller with a flawed main character.

[Gail]

Enjoy art, violence, and flawed characters? Clearly, this thriller was written by a connoisseur of the art world as well as the underbelly of NYC.

[Wolfgang Krietsch]

I really loved that story. Don't have the book anymore, though ... unfortunately, it's not available as e-book.

[RB Love]

Read about this author in a magazine from the 90’s while waiting for my taxes to be re-done in Mike Metropole’s office, PA.
The significant thing is the image and story of the author being as, if not more, striking than the actual work/book. Same as, A Confederacy of Dunces, not that these two books should be compared. But that is what sells me. This guy was a heroin addict and a gambling art dealer and hit rock bottom and went through several divorces. The story of John Kennedy Toole… Anyway;
Her bed was rumpled and warm. I drew her to me, kissed her again and got lost in her lips. She tasted like she smelled, of spice and sunlight, and the sea. We were gentle, tentative. We explored, and stroked, finding each other’s rhythms and sensitive places. Aroused, we grew more sure of each other. When I entered her she murmured something, and without hearing her words, I understood. We moved together. I felt her rising to me as if to draw me deeper inside her. As her nipples hardened against my chest she twisted her fingers in my hair and urged me on. Her legs spread wide and she pushed herself up at me, all slippery heat. She called my name, then opened her eyes and looked into mine. She was ready. My world filled with incandescence and white noise, and I exploded inside her.
…Then we kissed, and I kew that I had discovered something. I couldn’t explain it or put it into words. But some part of me that had been murky and confused became clear. Then I drifted off to sleep, all tangled up with Dev. From p. 118.

Not bad. But, after wavering back and forth on whether or not this was a good book or good writing, in the end, I decided, it’s trashy. The first person is often times too cute – (something to be aware of) – and the whole thing is completely out of touch with reality – (another thing to be acutely aware of). 12/25/2007.

[Josiah]

About a drug dealer turned art dealer. Obviously the author knows art and drops a lot of it in the book. Suprisingly more literate than what I expected from what I had expected to be a simple, straightforward crime novel. But then I read the bio stating that it is the first novel of a "former art dealer" and then the whole thing makes more sense. Still very male-centric:
p. 139 "a room that looked like something out of an Edith Wharton Novel."
p. 116 "Robertson Davies novels stood next to the works of Anais Nin and James Joyce. I was surprised to find Johnathan Carroll's Sleeping in Flame on top of a pile of [art] auction catalogs. She even had Jim Harrison's Dalva set aside with an Alice Waters cookbook."
Had a cool little vignette about a WWII art forger duping Nazis. Had a couple loose ends that are never resolved. But decent overall.

[Benjamin Duffy]

I found this book at the dollar store, where I was buying some gift wrapping paper. There was a huge shelf full of copies of Thief of Light, at least 100 copies, and they were for sale for 4 for a dollar. I'm not kidding. I bought one, and well, I got my money's worth. It was interesting while I read it, but really rather cheesy. And the first person narration just pushes the fromage factor right over the top.

[Charnelly Francis]

I didnt like this book...well i didnt like the first 100 or so pages because there wasn't any action.After that..ahh it was a good. Madusa found the little boy and boy was there alot going on.

[Carolyn (in SC) C234D]

I had written "Good suspense novel", but cannot remember any details after so many years. I think I liked it enough to read another book by Ramus.

[Kaylah Hancock]

The book started out slowly and I almost decided to give up on it. However, I pushed on and kept reading it. It got way better as the story progressed and I'm glad I decided to stick with it.

[Kariss]

Art dealers, forgeries, murder, Yakuza ,heroin, love of art, New York - slow start but good read

[Leslie Angel]

Pretty exciting. wanted more about art, but kept my attention.