The Art Forger

I feel like the author of this book did a good job researching. The plot crosses many timelines in history between both the narrator's past and present with Bel Gardner's letters as well. But I kind of feel like in the end it was all just a tad bit shallow? I mean this was a good book but it wasn't great, which was semi-disappointing with a intriguing storyline. I just felt like this just didn't reach the level of depth I wanted from a book centered around art. Especially at the end, there was so much suspense and it had the potential to be so good. But Shapiro just jumped from situation to situation and it was like a bad 90's action movie. At the end and after all that jumping around. The final pages didn't wrap everything up in a nice bow, which the intense storyline so craved. Instead it was like a bad wrap job. Imagine getting a beautiful package for Christmas, and the contents is something that you have wanted for a long time. Now think about that item wrapped in beautiful paper perfectly with a bow on top versus it wrapped with uncrisp edges and with a whole roll of scotch tape–no bow. The content is still there, but you'd really rather prefer the nice wrap job. I'm sorry to say that the lacking option was The Art Forger by Barbara Shapiro.

Meh. Decently written, not horrible or anything but not fantastic. Very predictable and not all that engrossing. I read it in a day but only because I was bored. Otherwise, it might have taken me a while to finish. The characters were flat and uninteresting, and the protagonist was quite iffy. The concept was cool, though, and the art stuff was fascinating. I just think that the story surrounding it could have been developed and written better and had better characters.