Kate Belli fuses survivor's guilt and the unsteady art business in the wake of the September 11 attacks in her invigorating mystery The Gallery Assistant.
Two months after the Twin Towers fell, New York City has barely begun to recover and is rampant with suspicion concerning traffic delays and people of Middle Eastern descent. Chloe Harlow, who escaped the North Tower, deals with the emotional fallout through regular blackout drinking. She works as an assistant at a tony Upper East Side Manhattan art gallery, whose newest star, Inga Beck, is murdered following the party to celebrate her major show. The morning after the party, Chloe wakes up hungover and naked in her own bed with no memory of how she reached her Brooklyn apartment. She learns about Inga's murder after she gets to work. The art market has been "volatile since the attacks," but Inga's murder may make her paintings more valuable--meaning that the gallery, which is handling them, could make millions.
Chloe is thrust into the investigation because the police think she may know more about the murder, although she maintains she was too drunk to remember anything. But as Chloe slowly discovers, she may be more involved in the events of the night than she initially recalled. Furthermore, her continued nightmares and panic attacks about 9/11 threaten her mental state.
Belli's (The Gilded Gotham Mystery series) chilling depiction of Chloe's escape from the towers and its psychological aftermath serves as a memorable framework for the taut mystery of The Gallery Assistant and its in-depth look at the complicated art market. --Oline H. Cogdill, freelance reviewer