Book Ends: Art And Crime, A Perfect Mix

By Bill Wilson

“Good writers are good readers.”- James Scott Bell, How to Make a Living as a Writer

San Miguel de Allende is a town full of creative people. Photographers, writers, artists, sculptors, authors, playwrights, and poets just to name a few. Rarely, though, do you find an accomplished artist and renown author in one person.

Author Jonathan Santlofer of New York and frequent San Miguel visitor has a unique palette. It’s full of a little oil paint, some pastels, printers ink and a splatter of blood. Art and crime novels are the result of this unique award winning artist-author. During a recent visit to our city, Insiders’ News sat down with Santlofer at the home of David Cross in Centro. Cross’ wife, the late Caren Cross, produced the award-winning documentary “Lost and Found in Mexico”. Santlofer was also a presenter years ago at the annual San Miguel Writers’ Conference.

He also went to art school with Caren. His first book, “The Death Artist” came about after a fire destroyed his art exhibit in Chicago. He has written over 10 published works including anthologies. Currently, on the shelves are “The Last Mona Lisa” and “The Lost Van Gogh.”

Santlofer lives in a loft in Manhattan's Chelsea flower market, in what was formerly a fur vault. “The neighborhood used to be all flowers and furs. Now it's flowers and hotels! It's a very hectic neighborhood, but the streets are always lined with plants and flowers so it's beautiful,” he says. While in San Miguel he continued final touches on his latest novel.

“The working title of my current book is "Paradise Lost." I'm not sure if that will stay or the pub date (as I have yet to hand it in, but soon). It's going to have some illustrations, which I am just starting now. I'm also working on the third Luke and Alex book (recurring characters), tentatively titled "Blue Marilyn" (another art mystery) but that title will probably change,” he notes.

What books does he read? “I read a lot of books for research when I'm writing. For my last book, "The Lost Van Gogh" I read "Van Gogh: The Life," an almost 1,000 page biography of Van Gogh by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, which is everything you ever wanted to know about the artist and it's spectacular.”

What draws Santlofer to our city? "There is so much I like about San Miguel, its beauty, the soft light, the pace of living, all so different from NYC.”

Bookstore News

Aurora Books Has a New Director! The San Miguel Literary Sala has announced that Mary Molinaro is the new director of Aurora Books. She has a master’s degree in library science and served for many years on the University of Kentucky library faculty. She also brings her experience as a member of the San Miguel Writers’ Conference executive committee and director of the bookstore at the recent Writers’ Conference. Find them at Calzada de la Aurora 48-A.

Reading Tips

Did you know that in addition to Amazon’s Kindle reader you can read your Amazon e-books on an iPad via the iOS app of Kindle? Apple Books is another source of reading material.

Book Notes

There are quite a few online resources for readers to check out new releases, free eBooks, or a particular genre. Here are some that have email newsletters or websites: BookBub, The Fussy Librarian, New York Review of Books, Literary Hub, New York Times Book Review and various publishers and booksellers.

Local Authors

Read Canadian-American author Ellen Ackerman’s “Shirley’s Story. A Life of Finesse.” A memoir of her WWII Wave mother.

Jesús Ibarra, noted San Miguel journalist and author, has an English translation of his tome of our town’s history expected out this summer.

And frequent visitor to San Miguel, Robert Reich has an upcoming book (this summer) “Coming Up Short. A Memoir of My America.”

Bill Wilson, 20-year San Miguel resident has a journalism career spanning 50 years covering everything the UN to Cub Scout news. He’s also a weather buff and been a first responder.