THE WOMAN WHO STOLE HER PORTRAIT

About this book

At a preview for a country-house auction in Sussex, cataloguer Nell Avery catches an immaculately dressed eighty-two-year-old woman easing a celebrated portrait out of its frame. The woman is the girl in the painting. She says the famous man whose signature is on it never painted it. Nell needs this sale. Her commission, her employer's survival and a secret she has kept from her sister all depend on it. Gabriel Quinn, the conservator called in to assess the damage, will not put his name to anything he cannot see in the paint. He sees a great deal, including Nell. With three weeks until the estate's final decision, their search leads through a house being emptied, a seaside guest house, a dressmaker's patterns and a hotel ballroom. Why would a woman steal her own portrait? And whose life has been hidden inside it?