by David Ramus

The most amazing thing about this enjoyable new thriller by the author of the much-praised Thief of Light is that it exists at all. David Ramus was a top New York City art dealer who got into big trouble because of drug use and escalating debts in a dying art market. His first book was written to pay back his creditors; this one, his second, was written in a Federal prison where Ramus was serving a year's sentence for interstate transportation of stolen art. 'The constant friction of human contact, the noise and dirt and the simple fact that there is no such thing as a comfortable chair in prison makes it incredibly difficult to sit down with your thoughts and ideas and turn them into meaningful words on a page,' he says. In spite of this, The Gravity of Shadows is a smoothly written, carefully plotted story about a desperate New York art dealer, Wil Sumner, who takes a job appraising a private collection in his old home town of Palm Beach, Florida. Scandal, corruption, wayward sex, and murder are some of the things that Sumner finds hiding behind the priceless pictures. --Dick Adler