The Fine Art of Lying

Andrews’s gripping sophomore thriller (after Who Is Maud Dixon?) centers on Clare Bast, an art historian from the Hudson Valley who lands a job at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she meets and marries attorney Jed, and is whisked away to his affluent world on Park Avenue. Clare puts her dreams of finishing her PhD on pause when she gives birth to the couple’s daughter, and grows frustrated with Jed for failing to stand up to his overbearing family. One night, while admiring the art collection of Jed’s boss and his wife at a party they’re hosting, Clare meets and starts an affair with charming art dealer Gabriel Prévost. During one of their trysts at Gabriel’s brownstone, a stranger breaks in, steals a masterpiece by mid-century painter Blake Webley, and fatally shoots Gabriel. Though Clare flees and tries to erase any trace of her presence, she soon becomes a suspect in both crimes. Convinced that if she finds the stolen painting she can clear her name, she draws on her art expertise and elite connections to find the culprit. Andrews turns her gimlet eye on the lives and lies of New York’s ultrawealthy to riotously entertaining effect. Readers won’t be able to put this down. (May)