Overdue

Crime does pay, at least in art. Most artists, visual, musical, dramatic, literary, etc. do study other artists and incorporate techniques and do ideas, bits and pieces, reseen. This is how art works.

The Art Forger is not about that. It's about a painter who works for "Reproductions.com" to supplement her own art. She has a messy love life with an artist who adds his name to her work. This isn't forgery, it's robbery. Her next romance is with a collector who involves her in a conspiracy to commit fraud, to forge a Degas painting stolen from The Gardiner Musum.

Clair has lots of talent and no luck until she becomes a detective. I'm not a mystery fan, but this one was pretty easy to figure out.

I did like Shapiro's description of the layering, painting and discovery process, the first time. After the second or third time, I got the picture. The writing is not brilliant like that in Tartlett's The Golfinch and the detective work was not intricate or colorful like Atkinson's Jackson Brodie Series nor effecting like Jess Walter's Citizen Vince. This is a quick read, a painting you might pick up in department store or Musak, if you will.