A whirlwind adventure of a book. I lived in New York myself in the 90s and like the talented protagonist of two names, was drawn to Soho and the art scene. Somewhat terrifyingly, it was not hard for me to understand how a bored girl from a small town might somehow fall into a second identity as a glamorous patron of the New York art world. You’d think you could never understand how an understated girl from a small town could embezzle this amount of money. But the author does a wonderful job of showing exactly how this happened, in a frighteningly seductive way,

Though this book draws an obvious comparison to the Talented Mr. Ripley, it sometimes reminded me a little more of the first part of Psycho - only what if Marion Crane went back and forth between her office job and the glamorous escape she had tried to make, which was a success.

I found this book to be a whole lot of delicious fun and was surprised to learn it is based on a true story - which I am now inclined to research. If you have any interest in art, crime, or both, you will be sucked into this book..

Thanks to Harper Collins, NetGalley and the Talented Emily Grey Tedrowe for the advanced copy of this lovely book which I savored like a fine piece of art.

The Talented Miss Farwell
A Novel
by Emily Gray Tedrowe
HarperCollins Publishers
William Morrow
General Fiction (Adult) | Literary Fiction
Pub Date 29 Sep 2020 | Archive Date 29 Sep 2020

I love stories where the characters lead a double-life and are involved in a con. I thank Net Galley and the Harper Collins publishers for providing me an ARC of this book! I found it a little difficult to stay interested in this book. I skipped several sentences at a time and for me this book dragged.

A Sharp, Incisive Thriller!

Miss Farwell or Becky lives two entirely separate, distinct lives. To some she is a fierce art collector and to her family, she is just a simple woman. Why the double life? Why such deceit? Read to find out!

I very much enjoyed this thriller. I have always liked books where the character is living a double life, i.e., The Talented Mr. Ripley. There is something so satisfying about reading a book where the protagonist is pulling off such a high-risk con.

My only critique was the pacing. In my opinion, it took me a little long to really get into the "meat" of the book. Other than that, I think this was an excellent thriller!

I was very excited about this one thanks to the description; Catch Me If You Can meets Patricia Highsmith?! Unfortunately I found it fell a bit flat.

Although I really enjoyed the premise of this book I often found myself skipping sentences, paragraphs and even whole pages due to the extreme detail of the art pieces referenced. I know these pieces enhanced the story and would appeal to those who know art well however, I was racing to the end to see if the crime was discovered so those parts weren’t important to me.

A woman leads a complicated double life, where she is both a crafty and resourceful New York art dealer and a quiet, small town clerk. But her two lives collide and disaster results. Clever, intelligent and sly