Geary, Joseph (Patrick Lynch, a joint pseudonym)

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GEARY, Joseph
(Patrick Lynch, a joint pseudonym)

PERSONAL:

Born in England. Education: Attended Oxford University.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Los Angeles, CA, and France. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Pantheon Publicity, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.

CAREER:

Author.

WRITINGS:

Spiral (novel), Pantheon Books (New York, NY), 2003.

Mirror, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2004.

WITH PHILIP SINGTON; UNDER JOINT PSEUDONYM PATRICK LYNCH

The Annunciation, Heinemann (London, England), 1993.

The Immaculate Conception, Heinemann (London, England), 1994.

Carriers, Random House (New York, NY), 1995.

Omega, Dutton (New York, NY), 1997.

The Policy, Dutton (New York, NY), 1998.

Figure of Eight, Dutton (New York, NY), 2000.

SIDELIGHTS:

After writing several novels with Philip Sington under the joint pseudonym Patrick Lynch, Joseph Geary's debut solo novel, Spiral, gained wide acclaim among critics. A thriller that combines a murder mystery with the underground world of unscrupulous art collectors, Spiral is the tale of a struggling English biographer named Nick Greer, who becomes obsessed with the life of a long-dead artist named Frank Spira. After five years of work, his biography on Spira is almost complete when Greer learns that Spira's former lover, Jacob Grossman, is still alive and living in New York City. Flying to New York, Greer finds Grossman, who is now a homeless bum in his eighties. During his interview, Grossman tells Greer about Spira's great painting The Incarnation, which the artist supposedly destroyed in Tangier back in 1957. However, Grossman thinks it still exists and that Greer is trying to find it. After the interview, Grossman is brutally murdered, and Greer, the last to see him, becomes a suspect in the murder investigation. But Greer also becomes a subject of interest to Tony Reardon, a mobster who once financed Spira and who is now looking for The Incarnation, which, if it exists, is estimated to be worth millions. Realizing he has opened up a deadly can of worms, Greer sets off to find the truth in Tangier, where he is nearly murdered himself as he tries to put together the pieces of the Spira puzzle and publish his biography before another writer beats him to the scoop.

"In this accomplished work," asserted Booklist contributor Keir Graff, "[Geary] has breathed life into an increasingly familiar mystery milieu—the art world." Calling the novel "smart, complex and insightful," a Publishers Weekly reviewer complimented the author's "tight, multilayered plot." And Maureen Corrigan, writing in Newsday, added, "Part of the fun of Spiral derives from the assurance with which Geary conjures up Spira's life and beat movement contacts. The rest of the nervous excitement derives from the breakneck plot, which twists, turns and zig-zags like an abstract rendering of the Brooklyn-Queens Express-way at rush hour."