OH did I love this book! This is probably my favorite book from this month. This one was a recommendation from the comments section here (THANK YOU to those who recommended it), and it was a combination of so many of my favorite things. Art. Cons. Glamour. Rags to riches… small town to big city. I will say that reading it gave me a major case of secondhand anxiety (similar to the feeling I got watching The Talented Mr. Ripley– does anyone else find themselves stressed for the characters when reading a book about a con artist?) This is the story of how Becky Farwell, a practical and trustworthy girl living in a small Illinois town, where she works tirelessly as the town’s financial controller. It’s also the story Reba Farwell, art collector extraordinaire – living the glamorous life in New York with a multi-million dollar collection. Becky is embezzling I found Becky/Reba to be such a compelling and interesting character, and the book was just so compulsively readable (I found myself wanting to abandon everything else I was doing to just READ, which is a great sign). I didn’t realize it until the author’s note at the end but it’s actually inspired by the true story of Rita Crundwell who committed off the biggest municipal fraud in history. That in itself has led to it’s own little rabbit hole!
Author: Emily Gray Tedrowe
