Picasso’s Lovers

In this vibrant historical from Mackin (The Beautiful American), a young journalist investigates the personal life of Pablo Picasso. Alana Olsen wants desperately to cover the art world. The price of doing so, according to her editor in 1953 New York City, is getting an exclusive on Picasso. So, Alana tracks down one of the artist’s muses, Sara Murphy, who posed for an early painting and now lives in New York. Sara agrees to share a story about Picasso’s former lover, Anna. Much later, Mackin reveals the details of Anna’s story along with Sara’s motivation to share her secret and a surprising connection between Alana and Anna. First, though, Mackin ramps up the stakes for her intrepid reporter when Alana’s former professor is dragged before Senator Joseph McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committee on suspicion of being a communist. It turns out the FBI is after Alana, too, since she once marched with her professor for a civil rights cause. She flees to France with her editor’s blessing, having procured a lead on Picasso’s whereabouts from Sara. Mackin’s clever plot delivers well-timed bombshells, and her characterizations of various women in Picasso’s life—such as Irene Lagut, who is blasé about her roles as lover and muse but nothing more—ring true. Thanks to Mackin, the women who loved and inspired Picasso get their turn in the spotlight. (Jan.)