Savvy art expert Fred Taylor, factotum for a wealthy Beacon Hill collector too refined- -and too paranoid—to do his own legwork, enjoys an odd but well paid life acting on Clayton Reed’s whims.

Reed suspects that there may be a Vermeer worth millions concealed under a boring landscape coming up for auction. Fred, more interested in chasing an independent Cambridge librarian than pursuing Old Masters, finds his mission to get the Vermeer derailed by Reed’s purchase of an unsigned nude from a down-and-out photographer of pornography who is subsequently rubbed out in his sleazy studio.

With various vultures circling—including the Boston PD—Fred is thrust into detection in order to score the painting, if it exists, and escape jail. His biggest obstacle is to pry the truth out of his own employer....