Antoine's life is good. During the day, he hangs pictures for the most fashionable art galleries in Paris. Evenings, he dedicates to the silky moves and subtle tactics of billiards, his true passion. But when Antoine is attacked by an art thief in a gallery his world begins to fall apart. His maverick investigation triggers two murders - he finds himself the prime suspect for one of them - as he uncovers a cesspool of art fraud. A game of billiards decides the outcome of this violently funny tale, laced with brilliant riffs about the world of modern art and the parasites that infest it. "You know, you can see parallels in the histories of crime and painting. At first, men painted as they kill, with bare hands. Raw art, you could say...Instinct before technique. Then came instruments, the stick, the brush. One fine day, painting with knives began. Look at the work of Jack the Ripper...And then the gun was invented. Painting with a gun brought something final and radical. And today, in the age of terrorism, they paint with bombs, in cities, in the metros. Anonymous graffiti that explode on street corners..."

About the Author
After being, in turn, a museum night-watchman, a train guard on the Paris-Rome line and a professional parasite on the Paris cocktail circuit, Benacquista is now a highly successful author of fiction and film scripts. In 2004 Bitter Lemon Press introduced him to English speaking readers with the critically acclaimed novel Holy Smoke. Adriana Hunter's work has included Catherine Millet's The Sexual Life of Catherine M. and Holy Smoke, Benacquista's debut novel in English.

Reviews
"Unexpected deadly demands made in the name of friendship inspire the plot of this quirky mystery novel. The phrase "black comedy" was invented for just this kind of book. Irreverently inveighs against romantic love, cancer and the Paris suburbs. Washington Post "An iconoclastic chronicle of small-time crooks and desperate capers, with added Gallic and Italian flair. Wonderful fun." Guardian "An entertainingly cynical story. I read it in one sitting." Observer "This prizewinning novel is guaranteed to keep you up late at night, driven to discover the ending. Its exciting, funny and bizarrely even includes tips on cooking Italian food.." Coventry Evening Telegraph "Boisterous black comedy...funny and good-hearted, with much incident and expert enthusiasm for sex, food and drink." Literary Review"



Book Information
ISBN 9781904738169
Author Adriana Hunter
Format Paperback
Page Count 252
Imprint Bitter Lemon Press
Publisher Bitter Lemon Press