Katherine Reay’s novel, The English Masterpiece, isn’t a murder mystery. Rather, it follows a high profile art forgery and the young assistant caught up in it. Lily Summers lands a job at the Tate Gallery in London, working under the first female Modern Collections keeper, Diana Gilden. The year is 1973, and Picasso has just died, rocking the art world. Diana and Lily rush to put together a show highlighting his career, and are able to do it in less than a month. One of the stars of the show is Woman Laughing, lent by prominent donor Edward Davies.
But when Lily walks through the gallery at the opening to bask in their success, she finds herself saying the unthinkable – that Woman Laughing is a forgery. The scandal is immediate, and the show is shut down. Being fired looms over Diana’s head, and is almost assured for Lily. The more Lily thinks about it, however, the more she’s sure that she was right. The painting lacked Picasso’s usual passion and, as an artist herself, she knows that something just feels wrong. Racing against time, Lily tries to prove she was right and find the forger before she loses her job, and her aspirations of being in the emerging artist gallery at the Tate, for good.
Though it’s not stated if this is a series, it certainly could be. Lily later gets a partner in art investigator Conor, and juggles relationships with her colorful family. This story, while mainly about dealing with the fallout of her comment about Woman Laughing, is also about Lily coming into her own. Plagued by self doubt, she’s not brave enough to be open about her art to anyone but the janitor at the art school she used to help clean. Most of Lily’s works, however, are copies, and she soon has to fight to clear her own name, too.
Lily herself was very much the focus, and many of the other characters, with the exception of Diana and her husband, were sketched in more lightly. Without being in her head, Lily’s sister Daisy came off as combative and unpleasant, especially early in the book. In the end, the pay off as to why Daisy (and their mother) were upset with Lily didn’t really seem to earn the dressing down she receives.
Aside from the family friction, however, The English Masterpiece is a fun read that keeps the pages turning. Lily is an interesting character, and it’s fun to see two such well drawn and different female characters guiding the story. The best bit is watching her figure out what happened, and throw herself into amateur investigation to do it. This is a definite must read for anyone who enjoys mysteries, but especially for anyone who enjoys art. – Margaret Agnew