The Art of Deception

First published in the U.K. in 1998, Ironside's solid thriller provides an intriguing look at the contemporary art world. London art historian Nicholas Ochterlonie, while returning one evening to his late mother's flat, where he's lived since his divorce, rescues a woman from an apparent street mugging. The victim turns out to be his next-door neighbor, Julian Bennet, and the two soon become lovers. Ochterlonie is sure that the assault wasn't random and that a threat still looms. Meanwhile, he creates controversy with his growing and increasingly vocal suspicions that a famous Vermeer portrait has been misattributed to the painter. The plot thickens when a police officer from the fraud squad stops by to ask about the real owner of Bennet's apartment, a shady Russian businessman. Ironside (A Very Private Enterprise ) does a good job of making her not-entirely-sympathetic lead accessible. (Dec.)