3.5***

Claire Roth is an aspiring artist who is making a living (just) by painting reproductions of old masters. And then she’s approached with an opportunity she cannot resist. A Degas painting is delivered to her studio, along with all the tools she’ll need to reproduce it … well, to actually forge the painting. In return she’ll not only be paid handsomely, but she’ll get her own show at Boston’s most prestigious gallery. But as she begins to study the original in preparation for painting the forgery, she makes a startling discovery.

Set against the backdrop of the infamous art theft at the Isabella Stewart Garner Museum in Boston – still the largest unsolved art heist in history – this is a marvelously intricate story. My feelings about Claire kept changing as I learned more of her backstory, and saw how vulnerable she was to being manipulated by unscrupulous men in a position of power. And then again, how could she be so stupid?!

Despite wanting to slap Claire silly a few times, I was engaged from beginning to end and Shapiro kept me turning pages to see what would happen next.