Fugitive Colors Book

Fugitive Colors

Debut Historical Suspense Novel Wins IPPY Award for Best “Literary Fiction 2014” Stolen art, love, lust, deception, and revenge paint the pages of veteran journalist Lisa Barr’s debut novel, Fugitive Colors, an un-put-down-able page-turner. Booklist calls the WWII era novel, "Masterfully conceived and crafted, Barr’s dazzling debut novel has it all: passion and jealousy, intrigue and danger." Fugitive Colors asks the reader: How far would you go for your passion? Would you kill for it? Steal for it? Or go to any length to protect it? Hitler’s War begins with the ruthless destruction of the avant-garde, but there is one young painter who refuses to let this happen. An accidental spy, Julian Klein, an idealistic American artist, leaves his religious upbringing for the artistic freedom of Paris in the early 1930s. Once he arrives in the “City of Light,” he meets a young German artist, Felix von Bredow, whose larger-than-life personality overshadows his inferior artistic ability, and the handsome and gifted artist Rene Levi, whose colossal talent will later serve to destroy him. The trio quickly becomes best friends, inseparable, until two women get in the way—the immensely talented artist Adrienne, Rene’s girlfriend with whom Julian secretly falls in love, and the stunning artist’s model Charlotte, a prostitute-cum-muse, who manages to bring great men to their knees. Artistic and romantic jealousies abound, as the characters play out their passions against the backdrop of the Nazis' rise to power. Felix returns to Berlin, where his father, a blue-blooded Nazi, is instrumental in creating the master plan to destroy Germany’s modern artists, and seeks his son’s help. Bolstered by vengeance, Felix will lure his friends to Germany, an ill-fated move, which will forever change their lives. Twists and turns, destruction and obsession, loss and hope will keep you up at night, as you journey from Chicago to Paris, Berlin to New York. With passionate strokes of captivating prose, Barr proves that while paintings have a canvas, passion has a face—that once exposed, the haunting images will linger . . . long after you have closed the book. The Hollywood Film Festival awarded Fugitive Colors first prize for “Best Unpublished Manuscript” (Opus Magnum Discovery Award). Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction—novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Fugitive Colors

Losing a fellow officer in a shoot-out is enough to rattle Sigrid's cool, controlled demeanor. Discovering that her lover, famous artist Oscar Nauman, has also been killed devastates her. She withdraws from her colleagues, her police career, her life. But it is art she cannot escape: Oscar has left her his paintings worth millions, and galleries are clamoring to sell them. Just as the early Italian masters painted a wash of vermilion over green to produce the warm flesh tones of their Madonnas - only to have time fade the red to leave a deathlike tint behind - Sigrid begins to see through the vibrant surface of New York's art world to the interplay of revenge, greed, and power beneath. These are motives she recognizes from her police work as catalysts for murder. And when a shocking homicide occurs, it hits close to home for Sigrid, implicating Oscar's friends and fellow artists in the crime. Her desire to find the killer now puts Sigrid back on the job and out on the street. More than justice is at stake: whether she can still cut it on the force and whether she will ever again dare to love hangs in the balance. Fugitive Colors goes beyond the whodunit genre to combine a top-notch mystery with a portrait of a woman cop indelibly changed - able to notice the background details, the subtle shades, and the feelings that ultimately damn or save us all.

Fading of Fugitive Colors by Museum Light Sources