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Art, Artists, and the Art World

Fiction | Mysteries

Fiction

Atwood, Margaret. The Cat’s Eye, 1988.
Caroline, a renowned Canadian artist, has a retrospective show and looks back at the painful past among her childhood peers.

Cheuse, Alan. The Light Possessed, 1990.
Cheuse has written a mythologized and improvised life of Georgia O’Keefe.

Cooperstein, Claire. Johanna: A Novel of the Van Gogh Family, 1995.
Based on Johanna Bonger-van Gogh's diary, this novel tells how Vincent van Gogh's sister-in-law rescues his works from destruction after Vincent's suicide and her husband's death.

Davies, Robertson. What’s Bred in the Bone, 1985.
Francis Cornish, art expert and collector of international renown, is good at keeping secrets, from a well-kept family secret hidden in the attic to his mysterious encounters with an embalmer and an art restorer.

De Lint, Charles. Memory and Dream, 1994.
De Lint has written an urban fantasy about an artist with a great deal of insight into both the creative process and the student/teacher relationship.

Earl, Maureen. Gulliver Quick, 1992.
This story traces the life, the many loves and the death of an American Picasso living in Paris.

Eberstadt, Fernanda. When the Sons of Heaven Meet the Daughters of the Earth, 1997.
When a homeless man’s artistic genius is discovered, he becomes the darling of the 1980s New York art scene until the pressures of that patronage and the lifestyle it demands threaten his talent.

Enright, Rosemary. Isobel, 1994.
Isobel travels to Milan to work as an au pair for Nina, with whom she takes art lessons, and develops a strange and horrible connection that lasts for years.

Filipacchi, Amanda. Nude Men, 1993.
Gloomy Jeremy is asked by Lady Henrietta, an artist who paints nude men, to be her model in this witty, memorable novel that explores sexual mores in an uninhibited light.

Godwin, Gail. Violet Clay, 1978.
A young woman fresh from art school and excited by the the promise of life as an artist, can only find work designing covers of romance novels.

Gordon, Mary. Spending: A Utopian Divertimento, 1998.
An artist finds her muse in a rich businessman who is willing to support her so she can pursue her art without outside distractions.

Gurganus, Allan. Plays Well With Others, 1997.
In this compassionate elegy for an innocent time, three young and gifted artists meet in New York City in the 1980s as the gay community collides headlong with the specter of AIDS.

Howard, Linda. Now You See Her, 1998.
In a creative frenzy she can barely recall, talented landscape artist Paris Sweeney paints a graphic murder scene which is soon mirrored by a real-life killing for which she comes under suspicion.

Ishiguro, Kazuo. An Artist of the Floating World, 1986.
A Japanese artist and his two daughters are in conflict over changing values in postwar Japan.

Just, Ward S. Ambition and Love, 1994.
A talented and driven young painter faces the question of whether ambition and love are mutually exclusive or two sides of the same coin.

Kennealy, Jerry. The Suspect, 1998.
Robert Duran, a private investigator who helps recover lost art, is the prime suspect when his artist wife is kidnapped by an ex-con.

Kennedy, William. Very Old Bones, 1992.
Set in 1958 in Albany, New York, this novel centers around gifted artist Peter Phelan and his hard-drinking, Irish-Catholic family of drifters, card sharks and outcasts.

Kernan, Michael. The Lost Diaries of Frans Hals, 1994.
A contemporary researcher discovers the diaries of Hals and takes us back to the life of the seventeenth century Dutch painter.

Kilmer, Nicholas. Harmony in Flesh and Black, 1995.
Beacon Hill art collector Reed and his assistant buy an artwork connected to a seedy murder and scheme to obtain a landscape they suspect was painted over a lost Vermeer.

King, Joan. The Impressionist: A Novel of Mary Cassatt, 1983.
A fictionalized account of Mary Cassatt's life.

Lennox, Judith. The Italian Garden, 1993.
This historical romance set in Renaissance Italy follows artist Joanna, whose talent is thwarted because of her gender, and her struggles with the men who wish to possess her.

Lipsky, David. The Art Fair, 1996.
An artist mother and her young son navigate the ups and downs of the New York City artscene and the influence it has on their complex and dependent relationship.

Mapson, Jo-Ann. Blue Rodeo, 1994.
Maggie, a recent divorcee, moves to New Mexico to paint again and to hide from a troubled past. She meets a charming sheepherder with his own past and the two find love.

Maugham, W. Somerset. The Moon and Sixpence, 1969.
Maugham writes a fictionalized account of Paul Gauguin’s decision to leave his middle-class existence and head for the South Pacific to paint.

Mayle, Peter. Chasing Cezanne, 1997.
This book provides a comedic adventure through the worldof French art forgery and fraud with a dash of romance thrown in.

Mortman, Doris. True Colors, 1994.
An aristocratic Spanish artist gets involved in international intrigue.

Otto, Whitney. The Passion Dream Book, 1997.
An ambitious young photographer faces difficult choices on her lifelong journey to artistic fulfillment.

Palmer, Elizabeth. Plucking the Apple, 1994.
Flirtations at a dinner party in the home of London art gallery owners begin a series of sexual infidelities and betrayals in this novel of modern manners.

Perez-Reverte, Arturo. The Flanders Panel, 1990.
Originally written in Spanish and set in Madrid, this novel tells the story of Julia, an art restorer, and the sinister chain of events set in motion when she uncovers a strange inscription on a 15th century Flemish painting.

Piercy, Marge. Summer People, 1989.
In this rumination on the nature of sexual love and friendship, artistic creativity and commitment, a long-standing menage a trois suddenly falls apart when one member becomes discontented.

Plante, David. Annunciation, 1994.
An American art historian living in London helps her daughter cope with her rape and subsequent pregnancy and travels to Italy and Russia in search of a lost painting.

Pollock, J.C. Goering’s List, 1993.
A former East German terrorist inherits Goering’s list of collectors who purchased art works stolen by the Nazis and becomes the object of an international manhunt.

Potok, Chaim. My Name is Asher Lev, 1972.
A sensitive Orthodox Jew who becomes a painter is exiled from his Hasidic community and his family because of his work.

Potok, Chaim. The Gift of Asher Lev, 1990.
After his exile, the successful painter returns to his closely-knit religious community and experiences a spiritual and professional crisis.

Ramus, David. The Gravity of Shadows, 1998.
Ramus weaves a suspenseful tale of a priceless Palm Beach art collection, an overeager New York art dealer and a political secret whose powerful keeper will protect it at any cost.

Ramus, David. Thief of Light, 1995.
This is a fast-paced novel that delves into the violence and corruption surrounding international art forgeries.

Rawn, Melanie. The Golden Key, 1997.
Artists in the Grijalva family possess the ability to manipulate time and reality within their paintings; none has ever used these powers for personal gain until Sario, who will do anything to win the love of his beautiful cousin.

Reiken, Frederick. The Odd Sea, 1998.
An art theme weaves through this novel about a family trying to cope with the sudden and mysterious disappearance of a teenage son.

Roberts, Nora. Homeport, 1998.
Miranda, authenticator of Renaissance art , travels to Italy to examine a sculpture; when her professional judgment is called into question, she allies herself with a seductive art thief and finds herself surrounded by deception, treachery and danger.

Schwartz, Gary. Bets and Scams, 1996.
A gripping tale of suspense combining art history with the inner workings of the art world, this book involves two desperate men, the mob and a Dutch painting.

Stone, Irving. The Agony and The Ecstasy, 1961.
The author has written a fictionalized and idealized version of the life of Michelangelo.

Stone, Irving. Depths of Glory, 1985.
Stone presents a fictionalized story of Camille Pissarro that portrays his struggle as well as his role in the Impressionist movement.

Stone, Irving. Lust for Life, 1962.
This book is the fictionalized version of the life of Vincent van Gogh.

Thompson, Alice. Justine, 1998.
An homage to the Marquis de Sade’s Justine, this book concerns a handicapped art collector obsessed with the portrait of the beautiful Justine; he eventually meets her and her disturbing identical twin sister with whom he begins a relationship.

Tine, Robert. Black Market, 1992.
Art investigator LeBlanc is asked to authenticate a painting owned by a New York cleaning woman; the painting turns out to be a 17th century masterpiece and the investigation leads back in time to an all-black Army unit in wartime Rome.

Urquhart, Jane. The Underpainter, 1997.
As an American minimalist painter creates a new series of paintings, he reminisces over the details of his life and over those who have affected him.

Weiss, David. Naked Came I: A Novel of Rodin, 1963.
A fictionalized account of the life and work of the French sculptor Auguste Rodin, portraying the controversies and love affairs that marked his life.

West, Morris L. Masterclass, 1991.
When his Italian mistress dies, a young art historian inherits her priceless Raphael paintings and attempts to spirit them out of Italy before the government or her family can claim the national treasures.

West, Morris L. Vanishing Point, 1996.
An artist is asked to temporarily abandon his work and lifestyle to search for his missing brother-in-law.

Wharton, William. Last Lovers, 1991.
A middle-aged American leaves his corporate career for a chance to find himself as an artist in Paris.

Wharton, William. Scumbler, 1984. A sixty-ish American expatriate wanders around Paris looking for the perfect scene to paint and ruminates on the big issues of death, meaning, time and dreams.

Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1906.
Wilde has written a tale of a young man who exchanges his soul for eternal youth; while his appearance remains unchanged in spite of years of crime and debauchery, a portrait of him in his youth changes to reflect his behavior.

Wilson, Susan. Beauty, 1996.
In this retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Alix is a portrait painter commissioned to paint a grotesquely deformed mystery writer hidden in New Hampshire’s White Mountains.

Winterson, Jeanette. Art and Lies: A Piece for Three Voices and a Bawd, 1995.
This unique novel is a provocative exploration of art, language and time in which three different characters are brought together in one day.

Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse, 1949.
At their holiday home in Cornwall, a distant lighthouse holds a haunting attraction for an Edwardian family as disillusionment, turmoil and a world on the brink of war plague the family’s relationships.

Mysteries

Comfort, Barbara. A Pair for the Queen, 1998.
Tish McWhinny, a septuagenarian portrait painter, restores an old unsigned dog painting which subsequently becomes the center of a murder mystery she helps solve.

Elkins, Aaron. A Deceptive Clarity, 1987.
The assistant curator of art at the San Francisco Museum travels to Berlin to set up an exhibit of art recovered from the Nazis after WWII, until his aristocratic boss gets murdered.

Elkins, Aaron. Old Scores, 1993.
The donation of a newly-discovered Rembrandt by an eccentric art collector to the Seattle Art Museum sends curator Chris Norgren to Europe to authenticate the painting and solve a murder along the way.

Hitchcock, Jane Stanton. Trick of the Eye, 1992.
A specialist in trompe l’oeil learns that illusion is more than a painter’s trick; for some it is a way of life.

Kenyon, Michael. Peckover Joins the Choir, 1994.
Detective Peckover is asked to investigate when a string of art thefts across Europe coincide with the Sealeigh Choral Society's concert schedule.

King, Laurie R. A Grave Talent, 1993.
A brilliant reclusive painter is the primary suspect in the first murder case assigned to newly-promoted detective Kate Martinelli.

Knight, Kathryn Lasky. Dark Swan, 1994.
When artist-sleuth Calista Jacobs finds a Boston matriarch stabbed to death, she uncovers the wealthy family's dark secrets to solve the mystery.

McClendon, Lise. The Bluejay Shaman, 1994.
Wyoming art expert Alix Thorrsen returns home to Montana to appraise some stolen art and discovers two murders that are related to a bluejay shaman artifact.

Malcolm, John A. Deceptive Appearance, 1992.
Art expert for London’s White Bank, Tim Simpson, investigates two mysterious Parisian deaths.

Malcolm, John A. Hung Over: A Tim Simpson Mystery, 1995.
While art investigator Tim Simpson is evaluating a collection of horse paintings, he stumbles upon a couple of murders.

Pears, Iain.
The Bernini Bust, 1992
Giotto’s Hand, 1997.
The Raphael Affair, 1992.
The Titian Committee, 1993.
General Bottando of Rome’s Art Theft Squad, his beautiful assistant Flavia di Stefano and her friend, British art dealer Jonathan Argyll, all investigate art thefts and related crimes in this mystery series.

Skeggs, Douglas. The Triumph of Bacchus, 1993.
When Titian’s masterpiece is stolen and held for 5 million pounds in ransom, a TV reporter and an art forger scramble to solve the mystery.

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