Carl Brookins reads from "The Case of the Purloined Painting"

Art, thieves, and the gumshoe who’s blowing the case wide open.

A small painting by a Polish painter, appropriated by an American Army unit at the end of the war, is used by an ex-GI to float a bank loan which results in the founding of a manufacturing firm in Minneapolis. Now the painting is at the center of a series of murderous attempts by the descendants of the veteran to conceal the painting’s past. World-wide efforts to repatriate stolen art bring international operatives to the Twin Cities. Enter private detective Sean Sean, a short but effective operative who, unlike many PIs of the modern era, doesn’t sleep around, doesn’t shoot people unnecessarily, and has many friends among various local law enforcement agencies.

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Before he became a mystery writer and reviewer, Brookins was a freelance photographer, a Public Television program director, a Cable TV administrator, and a counselor and faculty member at Metropolitan State University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He has reviewed mystery fiction for the Saint Paul Pioneer Press. He can now be found touring bookstores and libraries with his companions-in-crime, The Minnesota Crime Wave.