This is an engrossing, electrifying book, a fascinating novel about the world of High Art conservation and restoration, fakes (or not), shady financial deals worth millions and the criminal underworld.

This is John M Green’s sixth novel. Using the real-life Garner Museum Heist as inspiration, it  jumps between Sydney and Europe (with the main villains based in Belfast, but also, for instance, there are mentions of London, Paris and Monaco). Marvellously written, the characters are finely nuanced and multi-faceted. The first person voice is used to delineate our heroine JJ here in Sydney while the third person voice is used to describe the cold, ruthless, evil Farrellys.

The book is relatively thick, divided into ninety short chapters. The art restoration/conservation world is comprehensively researched and  tense drama, death (gruesome grisly murders included) and lots of unexpected, complicated plots twists are included. Is anything or anyone really who they appear to be?!

Bipolar disorder, coercive control, dyslexia, acrimonious divorce, bipolar disorder and social anxiety are all interwoven into the drama.  

We meet JJ here in Sydney. JJ is short for Justine Jego—or, to use her full name, Justine Vincent van Gogh Jego. Her full name comes from her Van Gogh-obsessed father, Hugh, a Police Detective who is a Vincent van Gogh (VvG) fan with possible family links to him. There is much bitterness and tension between Hugh and JJ.

She is a gallery curator and houses and pet sitting for her boss Brandy. One day JJ happens to look at a nearby apartment and sees what she thinks is a long lost, though destroyed painting by Van Gogh and other priceless works. But how could it be on a wall in a Sydney residence? Are they prints? And so begins her delving into dangerous waters. While seeking to unravel the possible truth, JJ’s life becomes topsy-turvy and she ends up consulting her alienated father. 

The fascinating world of the advanced lab equipment and technology currently used in art restoration/conservation/confirmation and discovery and the somewhat elite language used are scrupulously elucidated as well as the narrative of events of the other assorted masterpieces (eg a Vermeer, a Rembrandt) JJ unearths.     

As the book unfolds, readers discover the painting’s journey, and how it ended up in the hands of the Farrellys, head of a ruthless crime empire – an Irish Mob with international links, run by the cruel siblings Niall and Niamh, whose father recently transferred the business to them upon his passing from cancer.

We are left teetering in suspense and need a sequel please to find out what happens next!

https://www.panterapress.com.au/product/framed/

Framed