Artful Murder in the Hamptons

Book excerpt: Two-hundred long-forgotten French impressionist masterpieces, stashed away in the attic of a New York City brownstone, and valued at $1.6 billion in the festering Asian art markets. Zach ben Meier, the globally prominent art dealer, learns of their existence after reading the deceased painters memoirs in the musty archives of Paris Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Ben Meier ostentatiously implants himself in the Hamptons; what better blind to steal this quarry of art works. The tendrils of Zachs pursuits become complicated. Obstacles emerge everywhere: on Long Island, in New York City, in Monte Carlo; even on the streets of Paris. He forms a bizarre relationship with Adrielle, a former assassin forced into early retirement by the Mossad because of her cloying savagery. Together they fashion and execute a scheme that degenerates into mutual self-entrapment.