What a rush!

Woman on Fire by Lisa Barr 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Jules Roth, a recent journalism graduate, is desperate to work with Dan Mansfield, Pulitzer winning journalist. First step is meeting him—and that’s no walk in the park. Not to be deterred, Jules strong arms her way into his office declaring to his secretary that Dan’s her uncle. In the middle of talking to Dan an armed siege is reported in progress. Dan rushes out, Jules tags along. Demonstrating initiative Jules seizes the moment, takes a different line to the story, and scoops other journalists. She’s hired!

Dan’s friend Ellis Baum, a high end shoe designer, comes to him with a request to help track down a painting by Ernst Engle. The last painting he did, Woman on Fire, was of Ellis’ mother. It was stolen by the Nazis, and based on a newspaper report from Paris, may be part of a recent recovery of stolen Nazi art.

Jules joins Dan in the search. One that will lead from Paris to Switzerland, including investigations of an art dealer Margaux de Laurent, an approach to Bram Bakker, renowned art detective, and Baum’s  son Adam Chase, a talented artist who had once been the protégée of the pathological Margaux, until drugs had nearly killed him. 

Besides playing a dangerous detecting game, Jules has to negotiate her own damaged past. and the bright light that is Adam.

Strong characters, deadly situations, the taste of the hunt,  all combine for an explosive read! “Monuments Men” with killer twists, madness disguised as beauty, and a relentlessness that never falters. HoweverI must admit to being won over by the idea of the shoes—“four-inch-high Anika Baum stilettos—no surprise. Because Art Basel is not about the art; it’s about the shoes.”

A Harper Perennial ARC via NetGalley 

Please note: Quotes taken from an advanced reading copy maybe subject to change