Art Crime

Marion Spicer spends her days examining auction catalogues and searching for stolen works of art. All this changes when she inherits a prestigious collection of pre-Columbian art from a father she never knew; she must face the merciless microcosm of Paris art auctions and galleries, with its sharks, schemes, fences, traps, scams, and attacks. Her quest draws her into a world where people will kill for a love of beauty.

For the hundreds of thousands of followers of the Bangor, Maine Police Department on social media, the "Got Warrants?" feature brings a regular dose of levity. Pulled straight from daily reports, these short interludes provide a welcome spin on the standard police log. Collected here is a fresh batch of all-true police-related hijinks. Poking fun at human nature and turning ne'er-do-wells into sages of silliness, Got Warrants? reminds us all to step back, take a deep breath, and try not to take things so seriously.

One bright Los Angeles day, a young Polish émigré named Viva is driving along the freeway when she’s flagged down by a dazzling, disheveled woman in green chiffon. The woman is Bobby Sleeper, a fellow Eastern European and an erstwhile art gallerist with a mysterious background and even more mysterious filmmaker husband. Within days the couple hire Viva as their assistant, then enlist her as an accomplice in an improbable scheme involving a long-lost Vermeer masterwork, a multi-million-dollar reward, and several shadowy ex-husbands.

The extraordinary life and crimes of heiress-turned-revolutionary, who in 1974 became the only woman to pull off a major art heist, The Woman Who Stole Vermeer is Rose Dugdale’s story, from her idyllic upbringing in Devonshire and her presentation to Elizabeth II as a debutante to her university years and her eventual radical lifestyle.

How can she prove her innocence to save her son, when she's already been convicted of murdering his father? Art school dropout Lucie is on a backpacking trip across Europe when she arrives in the idyllic Swiss Alps. A holiday romance with ski instructor Mathieu takes a crucial turn when Lucie discovers she is pregnant. Spiralling into a relationship of coercion and dark domestic abuse, Lucie is powerless to escape her marriage without losing her son.

When 28-year-old San Francisco Daily Morning Call reporter Mark Twain met Tom Sawyer at a local bathhouse in 1863, he was seeking a subject for his first novel. As Twain steamed, played cards, and drank beer with Sawyer (a volunteer firefighter, customs inspector, and local hero responsible for having saved 90 lives at sea), he had second thoughts about Shirley Tempest, his proposed book about a local girl firefighter, and began to envision a novel of wider scope.

A chance discovery of something unimaginable will steer Detective Patrick Gutteridge’s life down a path littered with memories of his past, memories he’s spent a decade trying to forget. For two years, Gloucester’s provincial streets have glowed to the media interest gifted by the works of an anonymous graffiti artist, Tick-Tock. But the art is changing, distorting, each piece becoming more perverse and contentious than the last. Only DI Gutteridge sees a pattern forming which points to something far more sinister looming on the horizon.

Art is being systematically stolen from the collection on the most luxurious cruise ship at sea. The collective value is way beyond the sum people kill for. CSCI is approached to work invisibly because unlike INTERPOL or any other international crime unit, art police, valuers, insurance investigators, or experts, they are unknown to the thieves. They must remain unseen or the crime will stop, the thieves will vanish and the art lost for good.

Cinema emerged alongside the rules that ushered in boxing’s modern age and the “squared circle” proved the ideal stage for cinematic display. The public had its first taste of the new medium in 1894 through a heavyweight bout, recognized today as the world’s first feature film. Smash Hit: Race, Crime, and Culture in Boxing Films uses twenty films as the basis of a hard-nosed exploration as to how the genre held a bloody mirror to twentieth century America’s most prominent social anxieties, elucidating two conjoined mediums that serve as bellwether to an ever-shifting cultural zeitgeist.

Unlock the enigmatic world where beauty meets betrayal, where passion for art conceals a sinister underbelly. In this captivating exposé, J.K. Artson unveils the hidden stories that have plagued the art world for centuries. Prepare to be enthralled as you embark on a journey through the shadows of art, crime, and corruption. Discover the rise of illicit acts that threaten our cultural heritage, leaving a trail of stolen masterpieces and shattered legacies in their wake.

Not long ago, Somerville, Massachusetts was commonly referred to as “Slummerville.” A gritty, blue-collar town just north of Boston, its major claim to fame was a brutal gang war. Then, the Boston subway system’s Red Line came to Somerville’s Davis Square, and the town began to attract a more affluent, professional class to mix with its traditional working class base. The mixing has not always been easy.

Basic customer service skills have been in place for many years, but are the things you're saying and doing actually hurting your business? Best-selling author and MBA graduate Josh Soule shares new and improved customer service techniques that will make your career a success. This short but powerful workbook covers everything from how to make your customer interactions personal to how to deal with conflict in the workplace, how to stand up to verbal abuse from a customer, money-saving strategies, and more.

Funny, what people seem to want. In Art, Mystery, a controversial former footballer, now export agent specializing in chrome, accepts an unusual commission—to find and export a pornographic work of Renaissance art.

A troubled Mary Ann Walker takes a nosedive off a bridge. Seattle's police department macho man John LaMoia takes the call, along with the beauteous cop psychologist Daphne Matthews. They suspect her boyfriend, known to beat Mary Ann. Her seething brother, Ferrell, is convinced the boyfriend did the deed. But the case somehow becomes too slippery to close.

The Stranger (1946), the third film directed by the legendary Orson Welles, is a film noir thriller of the highest order. In the wake of World War II, Mr. Wilson, an official with the Allied War Crimes Commission (played by the legendary Edward G. Robinson), is on the trail of Franz Kindler, an escaped Nazi who was the chief architect of the regime’s mass genocide. Wilson allows a concentration camp commandant, Conrad Meinike, to escape in the hope that he will lead him to the elusive Kindler.

Gallery owner Ally Blake risks everything to exhibit at an art fair in Bogotá in the 1990s. She needs wealthy collectors to boost her gallery's sales and save her family from bankruptcy. When her art crates are tampered with and she discovers an ex-boyfriend and colleague from her State Department days in Santiago has involved her in a money laundering scheme, she devises a strategy to thwart the fraud, protect her children, and secure her family's future—but pulling it off will require her to make the art deal of a lifetime.

Master Forger David Henty has a problem: a forgery he painted is rejected and suddenly he owes a murderous, blind, female Japanese gangster £5 million.

How do you catch a killer who thinks murder is art? Michael Fisher sees himself as an artist rather than a killer and poses his victims to resemble famous paintings. Detective Nick Kelly is called to attend the latest crime scene and finds himself at the centre of a media storm. But while the rest of the police department feels under pressure, Nick relishes the attention. Karen Kelly, Nick’s soon to be ex-wife, watches in horror as this brutal game of cat and mouse plays out. But Karen has secrets of her own.

Spring is a magical time in England - bluebells massing along the woodland paths, primrose and wild thyme dotting the meadows. Antiques dealer Kate Hamilton is spending the month of May in the Suffolk village of Long Barston, enjoying precious time with Detective Inspector Tom Mallory. While attending the May Fair, the annual pageant based on a well-known Anglo-Saxon folktale, a body turns up in the middle of the festivities.

From the earliest days of silent films and the swinging era of the Roaring Twenties, through the Golden Age of the studio system and the patriotic call of WWII, to the Red Scare paranoia of the McCarthy years, the history of the Schenck brothers is the story of Hollywood itself—and the enduring power of the American Dream. Moguls is a must-listen for film fans, history buffs, and anyone who loves the movies.