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Suitable for Framing — Robert S. Levinson
Think Hitchcock on speed.
Charlie Collier, a private dealer in art masterpieces, is flying to Honolulu to deliver a Raphael Madonna to a client by a deadline that, if missed, can cost him a twenty-million dollar sale. Grounded in L.A. by rainstorms, he visits an auction gallery and recognizes that masterworks from the collection of the late Roman January -- due to go on the block tomorrow -- are fakes.
Over the next twelve hours, Charlie is pursued by a murderous gang of art robbers, who want him dead because of what he's discovered, and LAPD detectives, after him on charges of art theft, kidnapping, robbery, attempted murder, and trafficking in stolen art.
Along the way, romances blossom for Charlie with a seductive auction gallery director and Roman January's intoxicating widow while he twice comes within a trigger-pull of death, ignites a terrorist scare at Los Angeles International Airport, and is drafted into an Interpol art sting operation that climaxes at a County Museum of Art opening night gala and a life-threatening battle above the deadly La Brea Tar Pits.
And that's only the half of it.
Charlie Collier, a private dealer in art masterpieces, is flying to Honolulu to deliver a Raphael Madonna to a client by a deadline that, if missed, can cost him a twenty-million dollar sale. Grounded in L.A. by rainstorms, he visits an auction gallery and recognizes that masterworks from the collection of the late Roman January -- due to go on the block tomorrow -- are fakes.
Over the next twelve hours, Charlie is pursued by a murderous gang of art robbers, who want him dead because of what he's discovered, and LAPD detectives, after him on charges of art theft, kidnapping, robbery, attempted murder, and trafficking in stolen art.
Along the way, romances blossom for Charlie with a seductive auction gallery director and Roman January's intoxicating widow while he twice comes within a trigger-pull of death, ignites a terrorist scare at Los Angeles International Airport, and is drafted into an Interpol art sting operation that climaxes at a County Museum of Art opening night gala and a life-threatening battle above the deadly La Brea Tar Pits.
And that's only the half of it.
