Even though there were moments when I wanted to shake Claire, I found this readable and interesting. The painting techniques get a little detailed, but set a good scene, and I really appreciated the theme of folks, even experts, seeing what they want to see.

I thought the author did a decent job of twisting her fictions around the facts, and the historical references made me want to find a good biography of Degas as well as of Isabella Stewart Gardner and the various forgers.

The flashback style wasn’t my favorite here, going back to both Claire’s explosive affair with an art professor as well as rather vapory letters from Gardner.