The mixture of real events with the fictional story was well done. But ultimately the story seemed somewhat rushed and under-constructed. ( )

KIRKUS REVIEWA cleverly plotted art-world thriller/romance with a murky moral core.That nobody knows anything seems to be Shapiro?s (The Safe Room, 2002, etc., as Barbara Shapiro) assessment of art authentication, given the number of misdetected paintings strewn through her engrossing if unlikely story. In Boston, painter Claire Roth has spent three years dealing with the guilt and scandal of her involvement with Isaac Cullion, whose breakthrough work, 4D, she painted for him when he was blocked. After the picture became a success, Cullion refused to acknowledge Claire?s involvement, and her objections plus the attendant rumors led to his suicide and her vilification. Since then, she has survived financially by painting reproductions, so when influential gallery owner Aiden Markel arrives with a bizarre proposal�her own show if she will forge a copy of a Degas, one of the pictures stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum¥she says yes. As she works, Claire and Aiden become lovers, but she doesn?t tell him about her discovery that the stolen Degas is itself a copy. This knowledge is Claire?s lifeline when the finished forgery is discovered, Aiden and then Claire are both arrested, and only she can save them.Despite a shaky premise, this is convincingly researched, engaging storytelling. Intelligent entertainment.Pub Date: Oct. 23rd, 2012ISBN: 978-1-61620-132-6Page count: 368ppPublisher: AlgonquinReview Posted Online: Aug. 29th, 2012Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15th, 2012

Read this one that had been in my kindle for a long time once I realized it was a spun around the heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum.

For a person who doesn't know much about art I really enjoyed the parts of this about the forgery and overall found it to be a compelling story.

(I accidentally deleted my review from Goodreads so I don't recall exactly what my first impressions where. Rats!) ( )

Fun read. I really enjoyed the story which was fictional based on the art heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum in Boston. ( )

On March 18, 1990, 13 works of art were stole 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 Garden Museum-in exchange for a one-woman show in his renowned gallery. But when the very same long-missing Degas painting is delivered to Claire’s studio, she begins to suspect that it may itself be a forgery. ( )