Arrival of a Stranger

From the "ART DETECTIVES" series

Can the works of art become alive? What about the possibility to step into a painting and experience the depicted story? What are the secrets that the artists have hidden in their paintings?

The "Art Detectives" books invite you behind the scenes of the art world, full of adventures and mysteries. The series features the young detectives Theo and Button and their sausage-dog Comma, who investigate the hidden secrets of works by some of the best-known Latvian artists.

This time it is Niklāvs Strunke and his painting “A Man who Enters the Room” that pull the detectives into the vortex of adventures.

For several weeks newspapers are reporting of a terror that has seized Rigans: a strange man in grey coat has appeared in the city, who goes through the walls of houses like a ghost.

Detective Theo starts to investigate the case and meets the Grey Man face to face. Following the smell of dust and the call of the Grey Man “Čau!”, Theo with his partner Button and her fat dachshund Comma go into the streets of Riga to find out whether art can rally step out of the dust-covered painting frames and take a walk in the streets of today’s city. The art detectives will discover the secret of the Grey Man and will find out who introduced into Latvian the Italian greeting “Ciao!” (Čau!)

Seven titles have been published in the "Art Detectives" series - "Missing Monkey", "Invisible Man", "Arrival of a Stranger", "The Mask", "Last King", "Untitled" and "Secret Password". In all books, readers dive into the greatest chase in the history of the art world, meeting famous Latvian artists (Janis Rozentāls, Niklāvs Strunke, etc) or artists that have roots in Latvian territory (Mark Rothko).

Publisher: Neputns; Illustrator: Elina Braslina.