★★★
GENRE: Mystery
SUBJECT: Art theft, reproductions, painting style
SETTING: Boston, MA
CHARACTERS: Claire Roth, Aiden Markel
DATE READ: October 5 - October 9
NO. OF PAGES: 355
Off the Shelf (pre-2012)? Source?: yes, LT ER
CATEGORY: LUNCH
PLOT: 3
CHARACTERIZATION: 2
TOPICS: 2
STYLE: 4
ORIGINALITY: 3
ADDICTIVENESS: 2
OWNERSHIP: 3
THRESHOLD QUALITY: 3
This book tells the story of a young female artist who is persuaded to copy a painting by Degas that was stolen in a highly publicized theft from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in 1990. I found the chronicle of Claire Roth's efforts to not only reproduce this painting but also to find and return the lost art slow and uninspiring until very late in the book. The tangled threads of three different time periods and viewpoints did not make this a book that drew me further into the intrigue but made me question why I was spending the time reading it. The characters were unlikeable and stereotypical (starving artist, snooty museum curators/gallery owners), the plot too convoluted. Maybe an art student would enjoy it because of all the details conveyed relating to the process of painting but for the ordinary reader, not something I would recommend.
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