Burnt Orange Heresy [Mass Market Paperback]

Charles Willeford (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 20, 1999

A new paperback edition of the neo-noir novel book critics have called Willeford's best. Fast-talking, backstabbing, womanizing art critic Jacques Figueras will do anything - blackmail, burglary, fencing, assassination - to further his career. Crossing the art world with the underworld, Willeford expands his noir palette to include hues of sunny Florida and weird tints of Surrealism when Figueras takes a job for an art collector who doesn't care how his art is collected, even if it involves murder.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf (December 20, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786706686
• ISBN-13: 978-0786706686
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #352,806 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars brothersjudddotcom recommends, February 4, 2000

By 

Orrin C. Judd "brothersjudddotcom" (Hanover, NH USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Burnt Orange Heresy (Mass Market Paperback)

Best known for his Hoke Moseley novels, Willeford was also a painter. Here he brings the art world to a crime novel and renders a work that is sort of Crime and Punishment as rewritten by James M. Cain and Tom Wolfe.

James Figueras is a low rent art critic. He's wangled a posting to Palm Beach but he's saddled with dim prospects and an annoying girlfriend, Berenice Hollis. He's on the lookout for his one big break and it comes when he receives information that one of the most influential, but enigmatic, artists of the Twentieth Century has moved to Florida. A big collector offers to tell him where to find the artist, Jacques Debierue, if he'll steal one of the artist's works in exchange for the information.

In addition to a deftly rendered crime novel, Willeford proceeds to treat us to a devastatingly funny send up of Modern Art and the pseudo-intellectual theories that spawned it.

A hoot.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Willeford's best, May 5, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY (Paperback)

"The Burnt Orange Heresy" is Willeford's most fascinating work; the fact that it's out of print is a real pity.

In this novel about a corrupt Miami art critic who favors menthol cigarettes, pegged trousers, and buxom blondes, and who talks about his career as his "racket," Willeford expands the traditional limits of crime writing. There are some very amusing asides about art and art history -- subjects the author knew well, having been a failed painter himself -- and the psychological suspense remains taut throughout, even if the killing itself seems a little far-fetched. Even so, the invention of an expatriate French surrealist living in the Everglades is a bold move for a writer known for a noir palette.

Please reprint this book!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unusual Mystery/Thriller, October 13, 2003

By 

Westley (Stuck in my head) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Burnt Orange Heresy (Mass Market Paperback)

James Figueras is a talented and ambitious Miami art critic who has been slowly working his way toward the top of his field. He's always on the lookout for opportunities for advancement, although he likes to consider himself a basically honest professional. One night at an art gallery opening, he gets a shocking proposal from a mysterious lawyer, Joseph Cassidy. Cassidy has managed to gain the acquaintance of a legendary French painter, Jacques Debierue, who is so reclusive that his work hasn't been seen in decades. Interviewing Debierue would be a major, career-defining coup for Figueras, and he's prepared to do anything to get the information from Cassidy. However, when he hears Cassidy's proposal, Figueras has his doubts....

Many of Charles Williford's novels have gone out of print, which is unfortunate as his writing stands with the best noir writers. The Burnt Orange Heresy is a mean read, with shocks and twists galore. Some of the plot seems a bit far-fetched, but Williford writes so skillfully that the book withstands this flaw beautifully. Williford also has a real eye for detail and takes great advantage of the Miami and Florida settings. Overall, I highly recommended this novel, especially for fans of noir writers (e.g., Chandler, Jim Thompson).