Friday Focus: The Friday 56 and Book Beginnings #6

It's Friday . . . time to share excerpts from one of my current reads with:

Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.

The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice, where you grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an ebook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

 

This week's selection:

 

 The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro

Beginning:

GARDNER HEIST 21st ANNIVERSARY

 

Largest Art Theft in History Remains Unsolved

 

Boston, MA--In the early morning hours of March 18, 1990, two men dressed as police officers bound and gagged two guards at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and stole thirteen works of art worth today over $500 million. 

The cache included priceless masterpieces such as Rembrandt's "Storm on the Sea of Galilee," Vermeer's "The Concert" and Degas' "After the Bath." Despite thousands of hours of police work, a lapsed statute of limitations and a $5 million reward, the artwork has not been recovered.

Who are these two men who stole priceless artwork and have managed to avoid detection for so many years?  How will this story unfold?  One of my book clubs selected this novel for its August meeting, and I am sure it will spark a lively discussion.

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Page 56:  "'After all these years, they could be anywhere,' Rik says. 'Although lots of people assume they have to be hidden away in some greedy collector's attic, my guess is that they're being used as collateral for weapons and drug running.'"

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Overview from barnesandnoble.com:

On March 18, 1990, thirteen works of art worth today over $500 million were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. It remains the largest unsolved art heist in history, and Claire Roth, a struggling young artist, is about to discover that there’s more to this crime than meets the eye. 

 

Claire makes her living reproducing famous works of art for a popular online retailer. Desperate to improve her situation, she lets herself be lured into a Faustian bargain with Aiden Markel, a powerful gallery owner. She agrees to forge a painting—one of the Degas masterpieces stolen from the Gardner Museum—in exchange for a one-woman show in his renowned gallery. But when the long-missing Degas painting—the one that had been hanging for one hundred years at the Gardner—is delivered to Claire’s studio, she begins to suspect that it may itself be a forgery.

Claire’s search for the truth about the painting’s origins leads her into a labyrinth of deceit where secrets hidden since the late nineteenth century may be the only evidence that can now save her life. B. A. Shapiro’s razor-sharp writing and rich plot twists make The Art Forger an absorbing literary thriller that treats us to three centuries of forgers, art thieves, and obsessive collectors. It’s a dazzling novel about seeing—and not seeing—the secrets that lie beneath the canvas.

Enjoy life with books...

Catherine
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Friday Focus: The Friday 56 and Book Beginnings #6 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.