Love of Art & Murder: From Mystic to the City of Steeples is a work of fiction in the crime, mystery, suspense, and thriller subgenres. It is best suited to the general adult reading audience and was penned by author Rose Young. As the title suggests, this artistically themed murder mystery takes us on a journey through some of the most gorgeous places in the world and their artworks, leaving a trail of murder, deceit, and lies in its wake. Based on the true story of a major art crime, the narrative then follows a small team of investigators when the artist Marilyn Maroney is found dead after more than 300 people crossed paths between the Dahlia Art Gallery and the Velvet Muse.

Author Rose Young has crafted a truly fascinating murder mystery novel that grips you from the very first moments and never lets you go. I was most impressed by the presence, energy, and attitudes of the ensemble cast surrounding our intrepid Detective Dan Morrison, and how the different skillsets and personalities of the characters came into their own when they were needed. I felt the dialogue and interplay were realistic and offered much to help readers become invested in the lives of the characters just as much as the outcome of the multiple layers of mystery in the tale. Superbly crafted as the murder mystery part was, the art crime plot thread was my favorite and was more surprising the deeper I got into it. Overall, I would definitely recommend Love of Art & Murder to fans of atmospheric and intricately penned crime mysteries everywhere.

Love of Art & Murder: From Mystic to the City of Steeples by Rose Young is an intelligent suspense thriller that revolves around the notoriously secretive and sometimes ruthless multiplicity of what the general public knows as the art world. Young directs the story to a famed artist named Marilyn Maroney, found dead on the spear of a sculpture after a successful event where she is surrounded by hundreds of people. A digital re-enactment by Dr. Storm confirms Detective Morrison's suspicions that Marilyn's death is a homicide—and just because it may have been an accident does not mean it is not criminal. A potential connection is made when another artist named Cora is drugged and abducted, and two friends named Georgi and Roxanne take up the cause with a suspect in mind. However, all is never as it seems and this is proven in a shake-down of a world where no person or piece safe turns into a complex web. “I know their darkest secrets.”

Love of Art & Murder by Rose Young uses multiple points of view to create one of the best genre mysteries I have read in the past several months. The cast of characters and their degrees of involvement round out the plot, and a red herring leads those less informed than the reader on a series of paths that both surprise and entertain, including another murder that - as a reader - I felt more deeply than Marilyn's. I particularly enjoyed a character named Karl who embodies all the pretentiousness that outsiders of the art scene imagine an 'art snob' would be, but Karl's grandiosity paints the perfect picture of the stereotype, with the same being said for the woman pulling the strings behind him. Art forgery is one of those crimes that I have only seen happen in the series Riviera and it was fun for it to be one piece of Young's huge, mysterious puzzle. Overall, Love of Art & Murder is a fabulous read and I have no doubt that others who are fortunate enough to pick it up will agree.

Wine sommelier George Algarve could not believe what he saw at the Dahlia art gallery. On the balcony of the third floor hung the lifeless body of his beautiful friend Marilyn Maroney - a famous artist and sculptor - from her very own sculpture of Athena. Just when everyone was trying to wrap their heads around what had happened, another artist at the Dahlia gallery showed up dazed and half-naked after being abducted by a bogus art dealer. Could the latter incident be tied to Marilyn’s death? Was Marilyn murdered or did she take her own life? In a bid to get to the bottom of it all, detective Dan Morrison and his team, together with George and his friends, find themselves treading a dangerous path involving art theft and murder. Get yourself Rose Young’s Love of Art and Murder: From Mystic to the City of Steeples to discover more.

Rose Young had me hooked on her page-turner right from the start. Love of Art and Murder is a must-read for fans of mystery murder novels anchored in a gripping tale of love, deception, romance, art, money, and crime. Young builds an intriguing plot featuring an exciting cast, capturing the mood and setting of the scenes with colorful and vivid depictions. It felt as if I was right in the middle of all the action as the City of Steeples is brought to life on the engrossing pages. Young skillfully portrays the qualities and feelings of the well-crafted cast. Although I didn’t like George’s overt display of emotion, I admired his shrewdness. Just when I thought that I had pieced together the puzzle, the story would take a huge turn and leave me yearning for answers. There is an adventure, suspense, drama, humor, and so much more.

It is said that an artist's work shoots up in value when they are dead, and the murder of a talented artist in the crime novel Love of Art & Murder: From Mystic to the City of Steeples by Rose Young tips its hat to this theory. Young introduces readers to several characters with both strong ties and vague links to Marilyn Maroney, the slain artist and first body crushed under a unique and deeply intriguing storyline. Who knew that an agent could get life insurance on artists they represent, or that prepackaged temporary veneers for the teeth were real? As the falling dominoes begin to speed up and other members of the art community end up in the crosshairs of gender-based violence, such as Cora being drugged unconscious and Marguerite clinging to life after nearly drowning in a river, the plot thickens. Together, the trio of Georgi, Roxanne, and Morrison literally pick up a storm as they unravel a high-stakes crime that includes art theft and forgery, the black market of art for even darker purposes, and, of course, murder.

There's a lot to unpack after reading Love of Art & Murder, but I'm having a grand time sorting through my thoughts about Rose Young's incredible tale. I found the build-up to be especially gratifying as Young does really well in developing characters and allowing readers without a lot of understanding of the art world to acclimate themselves comfortably. There are no information dumps and the way the case and everything that it triggers is parceled out shows that Young has the skilled hand of a seasoned storyteller. I loved that as a reader I was provided with a backtrack that unexpectedly put me right in Marilyn's apartment on the ill-fated night of her impaling, and the experience is sprinkled with a bit of seriously creepy mommy issues and a pomegranate analogy for the ages. There are some unexpected twists and a couple of clever spanners, and when paired with crisp narrative and excellent dialogue, we are rewarded with the promise, “Somehow, it will all work out in the end. At least that’s what the Brits say when they don’t know what else to say.” Very highly recommended.