“Genius” is a detective story and, at the same time, much more than a detective story. The literary level of “Genius” will pleasantly surprise even the most fastidious connoisseur of good prose. Jesse Kellerman is compared to John Fowles—and there’s some truth to it. His novels feature intricate, mysterious plots combined with the highest literary style and philosophical depth.
Ethan Muller is a gallery owner. One day, he gets his hands on drawings by the artist Victor Kreik—an artist who lived as a recluse for many years, and who has recently disappeared without a trace. The drawings are so perfect, beautiful, and frightening at the same time that even an experienced and cynical art dealer falls under their spell. But these drawings are not just masterpieces of genius—they also conceal a dark secret. The drawings, when assembled together, form a giant canvas—on it is nothing less than life itself, including its black side. The discovery turns Ethan into a detective, and he plunges into the strange, frightening world of genius to understand the crimes of the past and the present.