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While there are many elements in this mystery that can create an interesting novel–including an intriguing painting (and the political suppression of its Chinese painter), a woman seeking to change her life, the artwork's hidden ownership, underground art, the drive of private collectors, and others–these elements never quite seem to gel. It's hard to really care about any of the main characters. Even the most sympathetic figure in the novel, a radical young American artist modeled on Banksy, disappoints in the end.
Then there's the convoluted plot. Is it about the life of Paire Anjou (a name the young woman who bears it chose for herself), a young art student who goes to work in the gallery where the painting is held? Is it about the artist Qi and his daughter? Is it about the drive to own art, as exemplified by the villainous Kasson family? Is it about Anjou's need to reinvent herself and her reasons for it? Is it about Anjou's boyfriend, the self-styled rebel artist who's beholden to darker forces?
All of these threads are included, but they never quite hold together or maintain interest over the course of the novel. While the book starts out interestingly enough with Anjou's need to reinvent herself, this mystery dragged out until the end and never really connected to the plotline of the painting itself. Indeed, throughout the course of the storytelling, the book seems to meander in one direction, then another, with none of the plot twists being particularly connected to one another, nor driving the story to its conclusion.
It seems that Alex Dolan doesn't really know what he wants to say with his story. Or he's got too many ideas, none of which are fleshed out enough to make a book of their own. There are endless plots and subplots, but with such unsympathetic characters, it is difficult to end up not really caring what happens to these unlikable folks or how the story will end.
This book could have been so much more. While comparisons are being made to books such as THE ART FORGER by Barbara Shapiro, this novel never even comes close to that quality of writing and plot.
§ Christine Zibas is a freelance writer and former director of publications for a Chicago nonprofit.
Reviewed by Christine Zibas, July 2016
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