The Houston Art Chronicles

This is the fourth novel in the Martin Taylor art crime series and begins when Martin returns

to New York to give evidence in a murder trial related to the case he had worked on in 2020.

Whilst in New York, the senior editor of the Houston Chronicle newspaper requests a

meeting to discuss an assignment to assist in the purchase of some paintings which will be

auctioned shortly in Houston. The paintings had belonged to a Mexican drug baron who had

moved to Houston and was subsequently assassinated after falling out with his

partner in the

drug trade.

The newspaper also wants to write a serialized article about Martin and his adventures for

their weekend magazine which he agreed would be a fantastic way to promote his private

investigation company.

Following the auction at which Martin successfully bid for a number of paintings that will be

hung in the boardroom and some of the senior personnel’s offices, Martin travelled to Mexico

City to meet with the art forger who had produced many of the paintings sold at the auction.

He suspected that the drug baron might have secreted drugs in some of the paintings when he

moved to Houston and this proved to be the case. He was kidnapped whilst in Mexico and

thanks to a friendship he had with a senior officer in the L.A.P.D. he was rescued by a team

of his men in Mexico City tracking the movement of drugs from that city to the USA. The

colleagues of the arrested Mexican drug baron arranged for an outlaw motorcycle gang to

harass Martin after he returned to Houston and this harassment followed him to Melbourne

and later to Bilbao where his fiancée lived. The action continues in Bilbao right to the end.