ABOUT THE BOOK
Some women can’t be painted out of history…
A story of love and madness, of obsession and revenge.
Paris, 1938 : Runaway heiress Juliette Willoughby perishes, with her married lover, in an accidental studio fire alongside her Surrealist masterpiece, Self Portrait as Sphinx.
Cambridge, 1991 : Two art history students stumble across proof something sinister was at play in Juliette’s death, threatening to expose the long-buried secrets of the artist’s aristocratic family.
Dubai, Now : An art dealer is accused of the brutal murder of his oldest friend – the last surviving member of the Willoughby dynasty.
Three suspicious deaths over the course of a century.
Is the key to unlocking them all hidden in Juliette Willoughby’s lost painting?
PUBLISHED BY HARPER
PURCHASE LINK
MY REVIEW
A fantastic and stylish thriller/mystery! I absolutely loved it! I can definitely see this as a movie or Netflix series as it’s got a little bit of everything!!
Set around the world of art, it’s set over different timelines and is looking at the tragic death of the artist Juliette in the 1930’s at the peak of her success. So we have the story told from her perspective back in the 1930’s, including life with her fellow artist.
We also meet Caroline and Patrick in the 1990’s while they are at University in Cambridge, looking into the work of Juliette and a missing piece of her artwork ‘Self Portrait of a Sphinx’ which leads them on an epic trail and uncovering some rather dark secrets.
And in the present day timeline we are transported to Dubai, where the famous work of Juliette is about to go on display – it just seems that there’s more than 1 copy! So which is genuine, and where has it been for all these years?
Each timeline blends effortlessly into the next and I couldn’t tell you which one I enjoyed the most as I loved them all! There’s so much discovery going on, wonderful characters to explore and it really shows the dark side of art and artists down the ages. The sense of history in each timeline is wonderfully explored there was never any drop in the suspense. One of my books of the year!!
Books and Me! 