Unfortunately, I couldn't finish this book. I loved the cover and the blurb, but I wasn't fast enough to finish this book before it went into the archive. I am so sorry about that. I would have loved to finish this book.

This book was so good! I want to see more from this author in the future!! I couldn't put this book down. What a page turner!!!

I haven't read anything by this author before, but I will definitely in future. I love the way he twists and turns a tale, and will quickly get the next one. Recommended.

Enjoyable read. Like the characters and the evolution of said characters. Hardy has hidden depths and is beginning to discover them himself. Shane continues to develop ways of inserting himself into investigations and become more mobile. The plot was not as obvious in this novel as it was in the first one in the series. I love the Sherlock Holmes references.

I am not a patient reader when it comes to this genre. This book tests my patience. It is too slow moving for my taste but someone who is a patient reader might enjoy the very thorough characters.

I usually finish a book within 3 days--i've been on this for a week and I just can't get into it. I don't care about the characters nor the plot
Thank you netgalley and the publisher for this arc

Bechman Warren Fitzwallen, an aging artist, is found dead in his bed. Detective Hardy Seltzer is dispatched to decide whether this was a suicide .. or murder. There's no apparent cause of death and as Seltzer investigates, he finds a lot of people .. including his own family.. are not grieving.

Then the rush to gather all the Fitzwallen paintings that are scattered among any number of collectors. It seems to always be about the money.

Seltzer calls on his old friend .. ex-detective Shane Hadley to help him decipher what may or may not have happened. Hadley retired on a medical disability as he was shot while on duty and now lives in a wheelchair. There's nothing he likes more than to dig his heels in to help his friend.

Hadley and Seltzer risk the ire of the city fathers, the police department, the medical establishment, and even organized crime to solve the last riddle of Bechman Fitzwallington. The solution that slowly comes into focus may mean that justice can never be done.

This was not suspenseful, although the mystery of the artist's death was worth following. Unfortunately it led to an ending that was mediocre. The characters of Seltzer and Hadley were well described, but they didn't generate a lot of action or interest on my part. To be fair, I have not read the first book in this series, and plan on doing so. Maybe this one was an aberration.

Many thanks to the author/ Secant Publishing / Netgalley for the digital copy of this crime fiction. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

I received this book from Secant Publishing through Netgalley for review and all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Set in Nashville, Tennessee; Detective Hardy Seltzer consults former police officer Shane Hadley in this second in series mystery. This time, a prominent artist has been discovered deceased in his home and a cast of suspects, including the artists daughter, are suspects. The man was generally unliked. The manner of death looks natural. Shane has deep rooted suspicions there is more to the case and he is right. Is it related to his wife's genome project?
Smart, highly enjoyable mystery series in unique setting with characters I've come to connect with. I will be seeking more from this author in future.

It's entertaining and well written, I liked the characters and the plot.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

I like the language and the characters very much, like in the first book, and this one has a real mystery and even a tiny bit of action. The pace of the story is really slow, however, making this book suitable for very patient readers.

Great book, at times it was a struggle to get through. But the end was worth it. I had trouble keeping up with the characters!

Detective Hardy and Shane, a former detective and paralytic, are mystified by the sudden death of an age artist, which was also ruled to be death by natural causes. For them the pieces were not adding up, and the puzzle became even more challenging when Shane was abducted and drugged. An interesting and intriguing tale with a lot of twists.

Another enjoyable installment in the “Shane Hadley Mystery” series, “Deadly Arts”, by Ken Brigham (Secant Publishing), has suspense, mystery, humor, a wonderful, low profile, wounded hero, and an engaging married couple still very much in love.
Shane Hadley is the anti-cocky, anti-alpha hero (although he can sound a bit overconfident sometimes). The paraplegic former detective is a very intelligent man, a paragon of discretion that contrasts, in a lovely way, with the admiration and even worship of the community.
The tenderness between Shane and Katya is one of my favorite dimensions of the story, along with Shane’s and Hardy Selzer friendship and investigative collaboration. It’s in his marriage that we get to see rare glimpses of the fragile hero.
I was so happy to see these characters again, it felt like meeting old friends; the world building and the setting (Nashville) are remarkable and I hope we’ll get book 3 soon.

It took ages to get through this book. It's well written but the language feels tortuous at times and, for some reason, I couldn't get to grips with the names of people and kept mixing up the characters. Dead, hated artist and almost everyone believes the death to be due to natural causes. Hero Shane Hadley, former policeman now in a wheelchair and, frankly, bored is not convinced of this any more than the lead detective is - but he has pressure from above to hinder his opinions (and no evidence). They persist though. Shanes' wife is a research neurologist whose work looks at brain changes with ageing. She has ethical issues to consider when she discovers that the dead man was one of the outliers on her data curve. This aspect was interesting but I felt that it fell between two stools - not enough or too much information depending upon how it really fitted with the overall story. Most of the characters were rather unpleasant, either being too aggressive in their arty dealings or too naive. It got more complicated as it became obvious that a drug cartel was also involved. While I can sort of appreciate Shane's frustrations in life he didn't come over as a sympathetic person but, rather, one who had a high opinion of himself - and he drank far too much of the special Oxford sherry! Thanks to NetGalley and Secant Publishing for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

I did not much like the first book in this series but thought I would give this one a try. This book pretty much followed the same outline as the first. And once again I found the story lacking in mystery or suspense and the writing style lacking. If there is a third book in this series, I will not be reading it.