The Duke of Cleveland by Research Associate Les Roberts

The Duke of Cleveland by Research Associate Les Roberts

#6 in the Milan Jacovich mystery series . . .

The wonderful thing about art is that it doesn't really have to do anything . . . All that is asked of it is that it be beautiful. It doesn't work that way with people.

So begins a sortie by Cleveland private investigator Milan Jacovich (it's pronounced MY-lan YOCK-ovich) into the cutthroat world of fine art. A slumming young heiress, April Delavan, hires Milan to find her most recent boyfriend, a potter who has absconded with $18,000 of her trust fund money.

But it doesn't figure that his disappearance would pique the interest of someone like Victor Gaimari, the elegant and affable mob figure with whom straight arrow Milan seems to be developing a love-hate relationship.

Milan soon learns that the former boyfriend may have made a few other enemies, and suddenly, fine art starts looking a little rough around the edges. It turns out truth and beauty don't always mix well--at least in the art business.

Les Roberts is the author of the Milan Jacovich mystery series and the winner of the first PWA Best First Private Eye Novel Competition. He is the recipient of the Sherwood Anderson Literary Award and the Cleveland Arts Prize for Literature. Roberts is a resident of Ohio.