The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby

Bestselling husband-and-wife duo Paul Vlitos and Collette Lyons, writing as Lloyd, follow up The Club with an overstuffed art world mystery. In the middle of giving a press conference about the lucrative sale of a long-lost painting by British surrealist Juliette Willoughby, Dubai gallery owner Patrick Lambert is arrested for murder. The action then flashes back to 1991, when Patrick met his wife, Caroline, at Cambridge, and the pair stumbled on the late Willoughby’s journal in an unsorted box of memorabilia on campus. The journal’s contents appear to shed new light on Willoughby’s 1938 death in a fire, insinuating that someone close to her may have killed her as part of a long-running vendetta. Other mysteries—including the disappearance of Patrick and Caroline’s classmate at Cambridge and a Willoughby servant who went missing in the ’30s—crowd the narrative. Though the various plot strands eventually tie back to the murder accusation that kicks things off, many readers will find that they’re no longer invested in finding out who Patrick may have killed, and why. A too-convenient payoff doesn’t help matters. This is a letdown. Agent: Hillary Jacobson, CAA. (June)