51. The Art Forger - B. A. Shapiro

2012, Algonquin Books

355 pgs.

Adult mystery

Finished 8/13/2014

Goodreads rating:  3.67

My rating:    4 - Loved it

Acquired TPPL, Recommended by Fran

Contemporary BOSTON!

1st sentence/s: "I step back and scrutinize the paintings.  There are eleven, although I have hundreds, maybe thousands.  My plan is to show him only pieces from my window series.  Or not.  I pull my cell from my pocket, check the time.  I can still change my mind."

My comments:  I haven't read late into the night to see what was going to happen in a book in ages. This was an interesting book on many levels.  It was a clever mystery (at the end, the reader had some facts about some of the "whys" that even the protagonist did not have).  It was about art ... and artists ... and the art world ... which all seem totally fascinating to me.  It was based on a real-life art heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum that i have followed for the last 20+ years.  The protagonist has many flaws, which makes her seem real.  She is sneaky and also brutally honest.  She is driven.  I also got to learn a lot about Edgar Degas in a really interesting way.  I only think of his ballet paintings when I hear his name, so now I want to look at much more.

Goodreads book summary:  On March 18, 1990, thirteen works of art today worth over $500 million were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. It remains the largest unsolved art heist in history, and Claire Roth, a struggling young artist, is about to discover that there’s more to this crime than meets the eye.

Making a living reproducing famous artworks for a popular online retailer and desperate to improve her situation, Claire is lured into a Faustian bargain with Aiden Markel, a powerful gallery owner. She agrees to forge a painting—a Degas masterpiece stolen from the Gardner Museum—in exchange for a one-woman show in his renowned gallery. But when that very same long-missing Degas painting is delivered to Claire’s studio, she begins to suspect that it may itself be a forgery.

Her desperate search for the truth leads Claire into a labyrinth of deceit where secrets hidden since the late nineteenth century may be the only evidence that can now save her life.