Robbers wreak havoc, smashing the glass covers protecting masterpieces and slicing paintings out of their frames. They make off with 13 works, including three Rembrandts and a Vermeer, worth more than half a billion dollars and beloved in the world of art. It is arguably the greatest property theft in human history.
In his final mystery, Donald Strachey is hired to find the missing art in a cold case from over 30 years ago with a $10 million reward! Hired by a local woman in a small Western Massachusetts town of Lenox who may have discovered the disposition of the artwork but needs Strachey to track down the culprits, question them, and convince them to hand the art over so that she and Strachey can collect the reward.
Chasing Rembrandt leads him all over Boston, New York, and the east coast in this thrilling masterpiece of its own. Published posthumously, the author signed off on the final edits a few weeks before his death, at 80, in 2022. A foreword is included by Zachary Lipez, the author's son.
"Strachey departs from the classic noir protagonist in two crucial respects. First, he's an openly gay man firmly embedded in Albany's late 70s gay scene. Second, he's funny and sane, not broody and neurotic - the anti-Philip Marlowe. The first aspect gives [this series] its historical and cultural value and the second is what makes it a pleasure, a joy, to read." - Michael Nava
"Richard Stevenson's mysteries are among the wittiest and most politically pointed around today." - Washington Post