Death Imitating Art

Harry Spangler is trying to scam the SoHo art world, the NYPD, and the mafia; and he's using an old "Lucy" episode as his blueprint. By the way, Harry's a genius. Really. DEATH IMITATING ART follows the exploits of Harry Spangler, an alcohol-dependent substitute teacher with a photographic memory and a genius-level I.Q. Add to the mix a disgraced art appraiser with an appetite for revenge; a bartender with designs on being a mafia capo; and a painter who dreams of stardom and marijuana. When their paths converge, Harry devises a get-rich-quick scheme, loosely based on a "Here's Lucy" episode. But the caper rapidly degenerates into a series of entanglements from which not even Lucy could have extricated herself; especially when a mafia uncle and a smitten police detective join the mix. An often-hilarious and fast-moving caper, Rich J. Stone's debut novel is a true hybrid: a crime noir in the body of a screwball comedy.