Billed as a thriller but more satisfying as historical fiction; the rich story behind van Gogh’s success earns the spotlight.
A dual storyline connected by van Gogh’s legacy, the woman who first championed his art, and the women now fighting to protect it.
Before Vincent van Gogh was a household name, he died having sold barely any of his work: This is a familiar tale, and yet the name “Jo van Gogh” is rarely part of it. In 1996 Paris, Stella Swanson, an elderly woman married into a family of art dealers, reveals her connection to Jo in confidence to her housekeeper, Emma, an American art student struggling to make ends meet. Stella’s grandmother Claire was the longtime companion to Vincent van Gogh’s sister-in-law, Jo. Through Claire’s storyline in the 1890s, we learn that after her husband Theo’s death, Jo took it upon herself to continue his work of introducing Vincent’s art to the world—and Claire was vital to Jo’s success. Back in 1996, as Emma spends more time with Stella, she begins to share Stella’s sentiment that she was wronged by the Swanson family after her husband died. After devoting her life to the Swanson legacy, she’s been completely shut out, the precious art lining her salon walls now returned to the company collection. Stella introduces Emma to her step-grandson, Matthew, who works at the helm of the Swanson empire along with his sister, Caroline. Unlike Caroline, Matthew is sympathetic toward Stella and reveals some less-than-favorable information about Swanson’s business practices. Emma finds herself neck-deep in a plot with her roommates, emboldened to help Stella and unravel a massive art fraud in the process. “Every artist or art lover has thought at some point about how they would steal a painting from a famous museum,” she thinks. Well, if that’s true, it might explain why the plot to break in to the Musée d’Orsay is overly simple (Ocean’s 8 this is not). The modern storyline is fast-paced and cinematic, sacrificing character development for action. It’s easiest to root for Claire, whose perspective brings Jo van Gogh and her contributions to life in full color.
Billed as a thriller but more satisfying as historical fiction; the rich story behind van Gogh’s success earns the spotlight.Pub Date: July 14, 2026
ISBN: 9798217046492
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A feisty storm of Greek tragedy headlined by three very modern women.
On the isle of Capri, Helen Lingate seeks revenge on the people responsible for her mother’s death 30 years earlier—her own family.
When Sarah Lingate fell to her death on Capri in 1992, she left behind a 3-year-old daughter, Helen, and a legacy as a gifted playwright; her favorite necklace of golden snakes was lost to the sea. Thirty years later, Helen, chafing at the restrictions she’s grown up under as a member of the old-money Lingate family, hatches a plan with her uncle Marcus’ assistant, Lorna Moreno, to blackmail her uncle and her father with that same necklace, which mysteriously entered her possession a few months before. The novel begins on Capri just after Lorna disappears, and then traces her steps from 36 hours earlier. Interweaving chapters from the points of view of Helen, Lorna, and Sarah—as well as, later, a few others—we learn how Sarah gradually became stifled by the constant pressure of keeping up appearances until she became inspired to write a play, Saltwater, that was a not-so-thinly veiled tell-all revealing dark Lingate family secrets. It was shortly after this that she fell to her death. The loss of her mother has come to define Helen’s life, and if she can use the necklace as leverage to escape her family, and maybe learn the truth along the way, she’ll take the risk. Lorna’s motives are both murkier and more straightforward—she’s never had money, and she’s got a chip on her shoulder about it, so splitting 10 million euros with Helen sounds like a way to discard her past and start fresh. These strong, conniving women drive the drama and the narrative, and they are captivating enough that as twist after twist begins to unfurl, the novel still feels character-driven. The end—well, the end shocks. And it’s well earned. By the time the sun sets on the gorgeous excess and rugged coast of Capri, lives will have been destroyed.
A feisty storm of Greek tragedy headlined by three very modern women.Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780593875551
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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