The collector's apprentice
Shapiro, Barbara A.
Genre:
It's the summer of 1922
and nineteen-year-old Paulien Mertens finds herself in Paris--broke
disowned
and completely alone. Everyone in Belgium
including her own family
believes she stole millions in a sophisticated con game perpetrated by her then-fiancé
George Everard. To protect herself from the law and the wrath of those who lost everything
she creates a new identity
a Frenchwoman named Vivienne Gregsby
and sets out to recover her father's art collection
prove her innocence--and exact revenge on George. When the eccentric and wealthy American art collector Edwin Bradley offers Vivienne the perfect job
she is soon caught up in the Parisian world of post-Impressionists and expatriates--including Gertrude Stein and Henri Matisse
with whom Vivienne becomes romantically entwined. As she travels between Paris and Philadelphia
where Bradley is building an art museum
her life becomes even more complicated: George returns with unclear motives ... and then Vivienne is arrested for Bradley's murder.
Target Readership: