The title itself suggests a kind of oxymoronic sense to
this story, which features one of the most unsettling
characters. Clareβs life seems filled with unexplored
and unexplained out-of-body experiences. You almost wish to
feel empathy for her, but for some reason that is a big
challenge. Clare comes off as one of the most unlikable
characters.
Life seems to have moved along rapidly and left her
behind. So when she has the opportunity to do something,
definitely out of her normal wheelhouse, Clare makes the
decision to go with it. The sense of fair play seems to be
missing in her vocabulary. Love is reserved for a very few
folk in her universe. No doubt Clare loves her daughter, but
that relationship seems certain to suffer once her life
starts down a road to disappointment and disaster.
THE FINE ART OF LYING is a page turner. It is one of
those β I canβt wait to see what Clare does
next. There are several books that manage to alienate the
main character. Clare is the reason you read THE FINE ART OF
LYING. Definitely begin disliking her, but then you start
questioning what you would do in her footsteps. Donβt
get me started on her lovely in-laws.
You know what they say about lying. It ultimately gets
you in trouble. Even the best liar can get caught up in the
action. THE FINE ART OF LYING also reminds me of a phrase I
often use β donβt judge a book by its cover.
This fits both the title and characters. Which brings us
back to Clare. At the start, we question her intelligence
and ethics. She loves her husband and daughter. Her
immediate group of friends is small, having become a stay-
at-home mom and part-time student. Clare is very
opinionated, which makes you wonder why she isnβt more
selective in relationships. In short, thereβs a lot to
learn about Clare, and in THE FINE ART OF LYING there were
times that I felt I was back in my college art history
class. The list of artists seemed never-ending, and I was
tempted to see just how many were real versus created for
this story. Clare certainly has a flair for dramatics.
It truly took till the very last chapters to realize the
significance of the details that Clare keeps listing. THE
FINE ART OF LYING provides an interesting look at the
behind-the-scenes world of art history.Β For amateur
sleuths, there are plenty of discoveries to make.
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?
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