It's one of those "It's me not the book" cases. I'm in the mood for more fast paced stories and, even if I appreciated the historical setting, I found it quite slow.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Benton is an accomplished artist but he is brash, rude and an unforgiving critic. To the point that it is not criticism but seems very personal. When his body is found murdered in a gruesome fashion in a famous Manhattan Art School, everyone wants to get to the bottom of it and set it to rest because both studients and teachers are jittery.

Uncovering the why and how shows a trail of people who intensely disliked Benton, but whether it was enough for him to be murdered is left to be seen. Everyone who is suspect has an iron clad alibi and it is left to a young student who is trying to clear his friend's name to start a private investigation with a few leads that he has picked up.

The 1960s are very well depicted here - from draft dodgers, to the music scene, to the beginning of people coming out openly, the mistrust that gays and lesbians had to face, the bigotry, all detailed very well and brings the 60s to life here. Plenty of characters in the story, sometimes one too many, but a good story.

Wow this was so much fun, filled with interesting facts about the art in the 70's I love all the misadventures that occur and especially all the shenanigans that both the son of two cops and his love interest get up to, to solve the murder. I loved how the famous people such as Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol and quite a few others are just scattered throughout this story, but amongst this noisy, chaotic background, is the onset of the American war going on in Vietnam and all the racist and homophobic insults that are directed at artists and people who are starting to find that freedom isn't sometimes what's being said by the powers that be and sometimes you have to make a stand. This is a fabulous series and I wish I could get hold of the rest. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves art, mystery and murder and also loves fun.

Read this for the peek into the New York art scene in the 1960s more than for the mystery itself. This is the third book in a series which is fine as a standalone. It's 1967 and TJ Fitzgerald, the son of NYPD detectives who is himself a student at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, has enrolled at the Art Students League. He becomes friends with Ellen and Bill, who argues with Thomas Hart Benton when the latter visits. Benton, who was dreadful and homophobic ends up murdered (this did not happen in real life) and Bill, of course becomes a suspect. I wish that Harrison hadn't chosen a real person who wasn't actually murdered as a victim and wonder why she did so. The characters are lightly drawn and the mystery is just twisty enough. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

*Many thanks to Helen A. Harrison, Poisoned Press Pen, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
It turned out that I was not the target reader for this book. Having read over 30%, I gave up ... The main reason was that I felt bored with complicated relationships and rather poorly developing plot. I did not connect to any of the characters and yawned while reading so I decided to call it a day.

Interesting book set in 60s in America, with a murder in a art school and the disappearance of the main suspect. A bit slow to get into the storyline, but it flowed quite quickly as the story unfolded.

Set in the 1960s New York, the body of a cantankerous and condescending painter, Thomas Benton, is discovered. He had chastised the students in an art class, one in particular. A student becomes the prime suspect. TJ and his girlfriend are in this particular art class so take it upon themselves to investigate. TJ's parents are both police so he knows some of the ins and outs. As they go along, they find that they are alone in that the police at times appear to be on a different side.

Mentions of contemporaries of the time including Andy Warhol and Bob Dylan are interesting. Benton was indeed a real artist. I liked these references and appreciate art myself and have been to many of the great museums and galleries of the world. The story itself was interesting but the sheer quantity of adult language, though realistic, was jarring and distracting. I did not find the book engaging or connecting whatsoever. Books with unlikable characters are great...no need to like them to enjoy a book...but here I really struggled and felt like skimming ahead.

Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley.