Fake like Me

The unnamed artist who narrates this exceptional thriller from Bourland (I’ll Eat When I’m Dead) is finally enjoying success and financial freedom in her career. Then disaster strikes when a fire in her New York City loft/studio destroys Rich Ugly Old Maids, her newest series of seven paintings, which she considered her “crowning glory.” Out of desperation, she assures her gallerist that only one was destroyed. Now she has three months to recreate her large, intricate oil paintings for a Paris show. She secures space at a sprawling former upstate summer resort, the home of art collective Pine City and her idol, sculptor Carey Logan, whose suicide by drowning three years earlier served as a turning point in the artist’s work. She feverishly dives into painting and falls hard and fast for Carey’s paramour, Tyler Savage, soon becoming consumed by the mystery of Carey’s last days, her rumored final work, and what drove her to suicide. Bourland expertly shines a light on the nature of female ambition and desire and the often dark heart of inspiration. Readers fascinated with the blood, sweat, and tears of creating art will be especially rewarded. [em]Agent: Victoria Sanders, Victoria Sanders & Assoc. (June) [/em]