Catch Me If You Can
meets Patricia Highsmith in
this “stylish” (
New York Times Book Review
) page-turner of greed and
obsession, survival and self-invention that is a piercing character study of
one unforgettable female con artist.
At the end of the 1990s, with the art market finally
recovered from its disastrous collapse, Miss Rebecca Farwell has made a killing
at Christie’s in New York City, selling a portion of her extraordinary art
collection for a rumored 900 percent profit. Dressed in couture YSL, drinking
the finest champagne at trendy Balthazar, Reba, as she’s known, is the picture
of a wealthy art collector. To some, the elusive Miss Farwell is a shark with
outstanding business acumen. To others, she’s a heartless capitalist whose only
interest in art is how much she can make.
But a thousand miles from the Big Apple, in the small town
of Pierson, Illinois, Miss Farwell is someone else entirely—a quiet single
woman known as Becky who still lives in her family’s farmhouse, wears sensible
shoes, and works tirelessly as the town’s treasurer and controller.
No one understands the ins and outs of Pierson’s accounts
better than Becky; she’s the last one in the office every night, crunching the
numbers. Somehow, her neighbors marvel, she always finds a way to get the
struggling town just a little more money. What Pierson doesn’t see—and can
never discover—is that much of that money is shifted into a separate account
that she controls, “borrowed” funds used to finance her art habit. Though she
quietly repays Pierson when she can, the business of art is cutthroat and
unpredictable.
But as Reba Farwell’s deals get bigger and bigger, Becky
Farwell’s debt to Pierson spirals out of control. How long can the talented
Miss Farwell continue to pull off her double life?