Book of the Week 4.2.26
The catalyst for the action, emotions, and treachery in this book is the desperation of widow Jo van Gogh. Her brother-in-law Vincent’s work is now beloved and fetches millions, but after he and Jo’s husband Theo were gone, Jo was left with little except the determination to make Vincent famous. For years, she begged dealers and galleries to just take a chance on the work they deemed “a bit hectic.” Jo became like the other women who form the backbone of this twisting thriller: underestimated by men but never by one another, while saving their lives by their wiles and willingness to disregard convention. The savvy widow is aided in her work by Claire, a former sex worker with many secrets who’s desperate that Jo won’t find out a truth about her earlier life, and who makes a decision that threatens to destroy her present as well. Those women’s drama intertwines with chapters that take place in the 1990s and feature three young women, Paris art students whose mysterious benefactor has cancelled their scholarship and who also find desperation pushing them toward actions they thought they’d never consider. At the behest of another widow, this one married into a fabulously wealthy but miserable family of art dealers, they risk everything. What a cocktail of art history, determination, and rich people behaving badly, with all capped by an art heist that will have readers holding their breaths.—Henrietta Thornton
