"Art, ambition, deceit and desire collide in this suspenseful stunner."
Hawkins is sharp. Razor sharp. And her writing has me on a knife edge. This is another page-turning thriller that poses the question about what we hide and what we reveal. Where are we generous and what do we withhold? It's stylish, sophisticated, and serene. Yet gripping.
When a forensic anthropologist notices an incorrect exhibit label on one of Vanessa Chapman's sculptures, the curator of the Fairburn Foundation James Becker needs to visit Eris Island.
Becker is a huge fan of Vanessa's work and becoming curator to the foundation was achieved through hard work, dumb luck and only a minor bit of treachery. His best friend is Sebastian Lennox, the heir to Fairburn. His landlord, his boss, his friend, and ex-fiancee to his wife. It's a complex situation.
It's been five years since Vanessa has been gone and her affairs are still not settled. Vanessa bequeathed her entire artistic estate to the foundation established by Sebastian’s father and Vanessa's format gallerist.
And so Becker visits Eris island, with one house, one inhabitant, and one way out, unreachable from the Scottish mainland for 12 hours every day. It was once home to the artist, as famous as she was infamous, and whose notoriously unfaithful husband disappeared 20 years ago. Now it's home to Grace, executor and dear friend of Vanessa, content in her own isolation, grieving. Bereft without her friend and companion.
Brimming to the top with an abundance of secrets, half truths and skeletons galore, it's a stunning read. The vivid imagery. The evocative landscapes. The glorious place with a dizzying view, the place that shaped Vanessa's painting, the place in which she confronted her impossible, see where she embraced her expressionist self. The place where hundreds of years ago, the villagers used to bury the dead on Eris to keep them safe from wolves.
In that blue hour with night encroaching, when the sky begins to slowly fill with stars, we see how the decisions we make, or those that are made for us, determine who we are and who we become. First class.
| Primary Genre | Thriller and Suspense |
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