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A Novel
by Alexandra Andrews
From the critically acclaimed author of Who is Maud Dixon? comes a riveting new novel about a young wife and mother in a world of wealth and privilege, whose rash mistake sets off a domino effect of murder and betrayal.
In the beginning, there was art.
It was Clare Bast's love of art that saved her from a bleak, predictable life in upstate New York, and drew her to the cultured world of Manhattan's Upper East Side where she met Jed, her doting, affluent husband.
Despite her best efforts—including a half-finished PhD, abandoned when her daughter Sadie was born—Clare secretly can't help but feel like an imposter in Jed's one-percent, Park-Avenue life.
When the well-connected wife of Jed's new boss introduces her to influential friends—a curator here, a gallerist there, an aficionado abroad—Clare feels an essential part of herself coming alive again. And when she discovers that an important work painted by the subject of her unfinished dissertation is hanging in the brownstone of a seductively attractive dealer, she believes fate is leading her where she belongs ... until she finds herself at the scene of a gruesome murder and a stolen masterpiece. Caught in the perfectly wrong place at the perfectly wrong time, every clue the investigation uncovers points back to her.
Suddenly, Clare is trapped inside a dark and treacherous art world filled with unscrupulous dealers and international criminals. What, exactly, has she gotten herself into ... and how is she going to get herself, and her family, out?
"Andrews entwines the language and imagery of color, texture, and art throughout this taut and well-written thriller ... A mystery bound up in astute social satire." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"[G]ripping ... Andrews turns her gimlet eye on the lives and lies of New York's ultrawealthy to riotously entertaining effect. Readers won't be able to put this down." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"The Fine Art of Lying is propulsive from start to finish. Set against the backdrop of the New York art world, a love affair leads to a mysterious murder and a twist you won't see coming. Alexandra Andrews delivers with this riveting mystery." —Laura Dave, author of The Night We Lost Him
"Ruthless socialites, international intrigue, a torrid affair, a shocking murder, and a baffling art heist? Yes, please. With her playful, lightning-paced new mystery, Alexandra Andrews is monied Manhattan's very own Agatha Christie." —Ada Calhoun, author of Crush
This information about The Fine Art of Lying was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Alexandra Andrews has worked as a journalist, editor, and copywriter in New York and Paris. Her novel Who Is Maud Dixon? was published in 28 languages around the world, and was named a best book/mystery of the year by the New York Times, NPR, Time, the New York Post, and Entertainment Weekly. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and children.
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