TO CATCH A THIEF: ART FRAUD DETECTIVES FIGHTING CRIME by Yvonne Saxon

Art fraud has been around for centuries. It’s known that the Romans copied statues and passed them off as Greek. So many Old Masters (think Da Vinci, Raphael, Vermeer, and Rembrandt, for starters) have been copied, that there’s an Old Master forgery ring whose extent even the biggest auction houses and the top art specialists don’t know. It's not just paintings that are being counterfeited, either. Artifacts, statues, books, prints, etc., are all being stolen, copied, faked, and fabricated. For example, art dealer Tatiana Khan, owner of  Los Angeles' Chateau Allegre gallery, was paid $1,000 to copy Picasso's "La Femme Au Chapeau Bleu." She then sold the copy for $2 million to a buyer. “Fake art is the third largest criminal activity on Earth after drugs and weapons” according to a source.

HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR MYSTERY, BLACK OR WITH CREAM AND SUGAR? by Yvonne Saxon

 

Choosing a mystery to read is like going into a coffee house and starting at the big board of coffee drinks: there are a lot of choices! Which one do you choose? What do those names even mean? Because mysteries are as varied as coffee drinks, why not choose you next mystery like you’d choose a coffee? How? By looking at the “menu” and the “ingredients”!

Let’s start with the basics. To make a good cup of black coffee, you need the right ratio of boiling water to high quality beans. Whether dripped, poured over, or pressed through, the right amount of water to beans will produce a satisfying cup. The right ratio of crime to be solved and interesting characters to solve it will produce a satisfying mystery.