THIEF OF LIGHT by David Ramus - FIRST EDITION BOOK

Adrian Sellers is a fast-moving, greedy New York City art dealer who has found a shortcut to the top - selling forgeries to a wealthy Japanese businessman. When Adrian's gifted forger doesn't deliver his latest commission, a fake Monet water lilies, the scam begins to unravel. After a frantic search for the artist, Adrian makes a horrifying discovery - his brilliant forger has been viciously murdered in his SoHo loft and the newly finished painting is irreparably damaged. Unable to deliver the "Monet" to his client, Ryuichi Tanaka, Adrian and his partner offer to return the man's money. Tanaka has other ideas. Having already arranged for placement of the forgery and unwilling to lose face by changing those arrangements, Tanaka demands that Adrian deliver an original Monet - a painting worth eight million dollars. Tanaka punctuates his demand with an unspeakable act that sends Adrian's life spiraling into chaos. Adrian takes to the Manhattan streets in a frantic race to save his life. On neon-splashed Broadway and then in the confines of a seedy midtown hotel room he comes face-to-face with yet another demon - his addiction to heroin. With his stash dwindling and the cold hand of the Japanese mob around every corner, Adrian turns in desperation to the intelligent and compassionate Devon Berenson, who agrees to shelter him in her apartment, where together they face the terrors and howling pain of his drug withdrawal. Their lives become helplessly entwined as they comb the underworld of the Manhattan art scene for a way out, and Adrian begins his transformation into a courageous, even heroic man who must fight insurmountable odds to save his own life and the life of the woman he loves.