Murder at the Gardner : A Novel of Suspense: A Homer Kelly Mystery (Penguin Crime Monthly)

Investigating a lighthearted prankster, Homer Kelly finds murder instead . There are frogs in the pond at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. A balloon has been tied to one of the sculptures in the small museum's hallowed halls. And, worst of all, someone has moved paintings while no one was looking. At most museums these pranks would be an annoyance, but at the Gardner -- whose founder stipulated that the museum be disbanded if the original collection is ever disturbed -- they could spell disaster. The Gardner's board hires Harvard professor and former police lieutenant Homer Kelly to investigate the mischief. Hardly an art lover, Kelly has trouble taking the threat seriously at first. But when a museum patron is found dead after catching the prankster in the act, Homer springs into action. He may know nothing about art, but murder is something he understands all too well. What does Homer Kelly (an ex-detective, now a professor) know about art? Nothing at all. And therefore, when Titus Moon, the new young director of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, invites Homer to a trustee's meeting, and Homer realizes he is going to be expected to ward off the disaster threatening that distinguished Boston landmark, "Mrs. Jack Gardner's palace," Homer is worried. The great and famous collection assembled by Mrs. Gardner around the turn of the century includes Raphaels, Rembrandts, Botticellis, a Vermeer, a Rubens and one of the most famous Renaissance paintings in the United States, Titian's magnificent *The Rape of Europa*. Homer, as he listens to the trustees, realizes why the safety of these works of art is in jeopardy. Mrs. Gardner's will stipulates that *everything* in the museum must stay *exactly* as it has always been, or the collection will be dismantled. Homer and security chief Charlie Tibby struggle to bring things to rights, with the help of Titus Moon and his new assistants Polly Swallow and Aurora O'Doyle. And, as *their* efforts fail, as the problems accelerate, the trustees bring to a vote again and again an apocalyptic question: "Should the museum be dismantled and its contents sold at auction, in accordance with the stringent terms of Mrs. Gardner's will?" In the end, there is murder, anger, and anguish until matters are brought to a grand finale with a wild jostling that tumbles events into a spectacular new shape. After a series of seemingly harmless pranks at Boston's Isabella Gardner Museum, the trustees call in ex-detective and Harvard lecturer Homer Kelly to investigate.

But when art patron Madeline Hepplewhite is murdered after surprising the prankster, Homer has to answer questions a bit more pressing than "Who tied a balloon to the Cellini?"

"Langton tucks her tongue firmly in cheek before treating readers to a wild and wholly enjoyable ride on the trail of the dangerous trickster...An exceedingly charming mystery." (Publishers Weekly)

Tadpoles in the fountain lead to murder in the corridor of Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The trustees call in Homer Kelly, ex-cop and Harvard lecturer, to solve the case. Ex-detective Homer Kelly is called in to investigate pranks at the Gardner Museum. But when a wealthy art patron is murdered, the seemingly harmless becomes deadly serious