“Mark Sublette's first novel is... marvelous.”
Michael Blake, author of Dances with Wolves
Paint by Numbers is now available
To place an order, call 1-800-422-9382 or email: office@medicinemangallery.com Hardcover, 264 pages $24.95 ISBN: 978-0-9855448-0-5 Click here to read...
Book Signing Events July 2013
Santa Fe, Friday, July 19th
4:00 – 5:00 PM
Featured Book: Kayenta Crossing: A Charles Bloom Murder Mystery
Hosted by Medicine Man Gallery
Location: Medicine Man Gallery, 602A Canyon Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501
505.820.7451
Read MoreKayenta Crossing: A Charles Bloom Murder Mystery
by Mark Sublette
Cover painting by Ed Mell
Hardcover
Copyright 2013
248 pages
$24.95
ISBN: 978-0-9855448-2-9
Includes 27 original photographs
To place an order: office@medicinemangallery.com or call toll free: 800.422.9382
Reviews:
“Anyone with an ounce of curiosity about Santa Fe’s art scene and the rarified world of the vintage Navajo weaving will find much to like in Kayenta Crossing. With a deft hand, Mark Sublette tells an intriguing story of murder, vengeance, complex cultural connections and a young doctor who trades golf and fast cars for life on the reservation.” — Anne Hillerman, author of Tony Hillerman’s Landscape and the new Chee/Leaphorn novel Spider Woman’s Daughter
“Art dealers, collectors, and the American Southwest all adding up to an enjoyable fast-paced crescendo of exotic landscapes and peoples.” — Bruce Bernstein, PhD former director Santa Fe Indian Market
“A Southwest art mystery filled with hot sweat-lodge rocks, curing ceremonies, master Navajo weavers, greedy collectors, and a newly graduated doctor sent to work at a remote clinic in Navajoland.” — Wolf Schneider, contributing editor, abqARTS
“The Charles Bloom Mystery series delivers once again… a murder on the Navajo Nation, classic blankets, and a famous Daisy Taugelchee tapestry, requiring skills only a seasoned art dealer can provide to help solve. Mark Sublette’s Kayenta Crossing is a page-turner that doesn’t disappoint.” — Mark Winter, author of The Master Weavers and owner of the Historic Toadlena Trading Post
Book Description:
In the second book in the Charles Bloom Murder Mystery series…
On the Navajo Reservation, in a little aluminum trailer situated on a remote washboard road north of Kayenta, Arizona, Dr. Carson Riddly begins his family practice stint. He’s been exiled to the most remote medical clinic in the Indian Health Service. His duty station lies in the heart of Navajoland, with 300-foot crimson cliffs for a backdrop and no neighbors in sight. When a murder occurs on Doc Riddly’s watch, the talk turns to skinwalkers, gamblers, weavers, and drugs. Everyone is a suspect, including the doctor. Riddly reaches out to the only other bilagaana he knows on the rez, art dealer Charles Bloom. Unbeknownst to Bloom, whose Santa Fe gallery represents several Navajo artists, a string of savage murders is closer than he can imagine. By helping the doctor, Bloom exposes himself and his girlfriend, weaver Rachael Yellowhorse, to a cold-blooded killer’s wrath. If Riddly and Bloom can’t put the pieces together quickly enough, the man in the orange hat with blinding white teeth will add two more to his growing list of victims.
A conversation with Mark Sublette, author of Kayenta Crossing: A Charles Bloom Murder Mystery:
Q: Since you were in the Medical profession, like Carson Riddly, how are you two alike?
A: There’s no doubt a bit of myself is incorporated into the Carson character. I could relate to many of the situations he felt as a fresh young doctor out of residency thrown into the lions den of a rural clinic, where you were the only doctor for miles around.
Q: Have you ever met dealers/collectors like Darryl Ridgemont before?
A: My books are fiction, but twenty years of dealing in the art world you do see some pretty amazing things that dealers and collectors pull, hopefully none as horrific as the characters I write about.
Q: Did you take all of the photos in this book?
A: I did, I believe the additional visual references enhance the story line. For me being surrounded by the geography and the local residences was immensely helpful in writing my books.
Q: When is the next Charles Bloom book coming out?
A: The next book is “Hidden Canyon” it will come out in the summer of 2014, this will be the third installment of the Charles Bloom Murder Mystery series.
Read MoreBook Signing Events February 2013
Saturday, February 2
4:00 pm
Featured Book: Paint by Numbers: A Charles Bloom Murder Mystery
Hosted by Desert Cabelleros Western Museum
Location: 21 N. Frontier Street, Wickenburg, AZ 85390
928-684-2272
email: info@westernmuseum.org
http://www.westernmuseum.org/
Available on Canyon Road, Santa Fe – Paint by Numbers: A Charles Bloom Murder Mystery
by Mark Sublette
Cover painting by Francis Livingston
Hardcover, Copyright 2012, 264 pages
$24.95
ISBN: 978-0-9855448-0-5
To place an order: santafe@medicinemangallery.com or call toll free: 866.894.7451. You can also visit Medicine Man Gallery at 602A Canyon Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501
Reviews:
“From the gripping prologue to the twist-upon-twist conclusion, Mark Sublette’s PAINT BY NUMBERS will keep you up nights… unable to stop turning the page!” – – Sandi Ault, best-selling author of the WILD Mystery Series
“Mark Sublette’s first novel is… marvelous. The white art dealer Charles Bloom lives in New Mexico with Indians. His impressive work is constantly taken away by those who go for nothing but money in New York. But Charles Bloom never stops in following great creativity… neither should we.” – – Michael Blake, Dances with Wolves
“A deadly mystery about art and ambition, stretching from Navajoland to New York.” – – Wolf Schneider, abqARTS
“This riveting art mystery, in the tradition of the late Tony Hillerman, successfully develops an intriguing tale that captures the essence of the creative spirit of the Navajo from the Toadlena region.” – – Mark Winter, The Master Weavers and owner of the Historic Toadlena Trading Post
Book Description:
Bloom’s on Canyon Road, specializing in contemporary Native American art, once was a powerhouse gallery in Santa Fe. Then it lost its best-known artist, Willard Yellowhorse. Worse yet was Yellowhorse’s premature death soon after arriving in New York City under very suspicious circumstances.
With Yellowhorse’s final painting STRUGGLE, about to be sold at auction, gallery owner Charles Bloom’s inner voice keeps asking two unrelenting questions: how did Willard Yellowhorse really die, and who if anyone killed him? The answers for Charles lay somewhere deep inside the Navajo nation, Yellowhorse’s ancestral home. Charles will need the help of Yellowhorse’s sister, Rachael, and her grandfather, the nearly 100-year-old medicine man Hastiin Sherman, to unlock the key to Yellowhorse’s death. What Charles Bloom doesn’t realize is the evil coyote spirit that tracked down Yellowhorse is still watching and Charles could be next, if he isn’t careful….
A Charles Bloom murder mystery set in Santa Fe and Indian Country. Perfect for fans of Tony Hillerman.
A conversation with Mark Sublette, author of PAINT BY NUMBERS: A CHARLES BLOOM MURDER MYSTERY
Q: Since you are an art gallery owner in Santa Fe, and so is Charles Bloom, how is he like you and how is he not like you?
A: Bloom deals in strictly contemporary Native material, all modern works. I handle primarily antique Native artifacts and western art. From a dealer standpoint, I’m sure I have felt many of the same emotions working in the art profession.
Q: How much of what you write about in this book is true?
A: I use a few deceased artists and historic facts to help bring scenes to life, but all the events surrounding these characters are fictitious. The geographic locations and timelines are accurate, and the Toadlena Trading Post is real. This is one of the reasons I include my photos–so you know what’s real.
Q: Is Bloom’s much like your Medicine Man Gallery?
A: We’re both located on the 600 Block of Canyon Road! The feel of Bloom’s is similar to many historic galleries on Canyon Road.
Q: How many times have you been to Navajoland, and does it still have hogans without electricity?
A: I love to visit the Navajo Reservation. The land has a starkness that is palatable and in some ways it’s just like it was 100 years ago. There are still hogans and houses without electricity or water. Having said that, young men in hoodies listening to rap are also a part of today’s rez.
Q: Does Canyon de Chelly really have all those old crypts?
A: There are crypts in Canyon de Chelly, but you won’t be able to see them as they are well hidden and not something that would be shared with outsiders.
Q: Is the character of Willard Yellowhorse modeled on any real-life Native painter, like maybe TC Cannon?
A: Willard is no one and everyone. He is the creative power that can be found in all artists. He and his sister Rachael Yellowhorse in my mind embody people I would meet not only on the reservation but at a university. Well educated, yet respecting their culture.
Q: Have you ever met the famous people appearing in this book, like Andy Warhol, Donald Judd, and Jean-Michel Basquiat?
A: They were before my time, but captured my imagination in books and films. Since all the scenes I place them in are figments of my imagination, I sort of turn them into fictional characters, respecting how I would expect them to behave, and bringing some cachet of their times.
Q: Have you ever known an art dealer as unscrupulous as Bernard?
A: Thankfully no…though it’s possible they’re out there.
Q: Have you ever been to an auction at Sotheby’s in New York?
A: Many times.
Q: Do you believe in coyote spirits and evil chindi?
A: Surprisingly I do. There are some places and things we don’t understand, especially when it comes to Native American beliefs, and I don’t take those beliefs lightly.
Q: Did you take all the 22 photos in this book, and which ones are of Navajoland?
A: They are all my images, and mostly of Navajoland. There’s one of New York City, and one is a drawing by Maynard Dixon of Canyon de Muerto done in 1923. The images were mostly taken around the Toadlena Trading Post, Gallup, and Canyon de Chelly.
Q: When is the next Charles Bloom book coming out?
A: The next book comes out summer 2013 and is titled Kayenta Crossing. That book is more focused on the Navajo Reservation, with a new character who’s a young medical doctor, and of course Charles Bloom is back. The story for that particular book has been rolling around in my head for over a decade!
Read MoreFeature in The Savvy Collector Blog
Published online courtesy The Savvy Colletor Blog, November 27, 2012
Click here to view the original feature
Savvy Collectors appreciate Paint by Numbers
Education comes to you in a fictional read with this murder mystery by Mark Sublette, former physician, art collector and art dealer with galleries in both Arizona and New Mexico.
Paintings by number is a concept guaranteed to cause any art snob you know, me included, to grimace or wince. The book Paint by Numbers is terrific !!! Sublette reveals the underpinnings of our industry in the course of the story. I challenge even the most jaded of our community to find it a satisfying read.
Evidently his next story is already in the works. While I appreciate mysteries, a savvy collector needs to comprehend the role of each of the players, their interdependencies–be it the artist, the art dealer, the auction house personnel, the critics, etc.
Corinne Cain of www.SavvyCollector.com
Read More
Feature in Western Art Collector, December 2012
Dr. Mark Sublette signs “Paint by Numbers: A Charles Bloom Murder Mystery”
Published online courtesy Western Art Collector, December 2012
Western Art News
Paint By Numbers book signing
On December 8 avid readers and art lovers can meet gallery owner and author Dr. Mark Sublette when he will sign his first mystery novel, Paint By Numbers: A Charles Bloom Murder Mystery.
Set against the backdrop of the Navajo Nation, the novel follows the journey of protagonist Charles Bloom, a contemporary art gallery owner, who is faced with the loss of a the great painter Willard Yellowhorse.
Sublette, who has owned the Medicine Man Gallery for nearly two decades, gives readers an inside peek into the world of the art dealer – while telling a uniquely suspenseful story.
Michael Blake, author of Dances with Wolves, says “It’s a marvelous first novel.”
Attendees will delight in Paint By Numbers when they have their personalized copies signed – the cover features Francis Livingston’s commissioned work Dance I.
The Tucson gallery will host Dr. Mark Sublette on December 8 from noon to 1 pm.
Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery is located at 6872 E. Sunrise Drive, Suite 150, Tucson, AZ 85750. For more information, call 800-422-9382 or visit www.medicinemangallery.com.
Read More“Paint by Numbers” featured in Tulsa World
Mark Sublette’s novel, Paint by Numbers: A Charles Bloom Murder Mystery has been recently mentioned in Nour Habib’s article in Tulsa World, September 6, 2012.
Click here to read the article
Read More