The Talented Miss Farwell: A Novel

Catch Me If You Can meets Patricia Highsmith in

this “stylish” (New York Times Book Review) page-turner of greed and

obsession, survival and self-invention that is a piercing character study of

one unforgettable female con artist.

 

At the end of the 1990s, with the art market finally

recovered from its disastrous collapse, Miss Rebecca Farwell has made a killing

at Christie’s in New York City, selling a portion of her extraordinary art

collection for a rumored 900 percent profit. Dressed in couture YSL, drinking

the finest champagne at trendy Balthazar, Reba, as she’s known, is the picture

of a wealthy art collector. To some, the elusive Miss Farwell is a shark with

outstanding business acumen. To others, she’s a heartless capitalist whose only

interest in art is how much she can make.

But a thousand miles from the Big Apple, in the small town

of Pierson, Illinois, Miss Farwell is someone else entirely—a quiet single

woman known as Becky who still lives in her family’s farmhouse, wears sensible

shoes, and works tirelessly as the town’s treasurer and controller.

No one understands the ins and outs of Pierson’s accounts

better than Becky; she’s the last one in the office every night, crunching the

numbers. Somehow, her neighbors marvel, she always finds a way to get the

struggling town just a little more money. What Pierson doesn’t see—and can

never discover—is that much of that money is shifted into a separate account

that she controls, “borrowed” funds used to finance her art habit. Though she

quietly repays Pierson when she can, the business of art is cutthroat and

unpredictable.

But as Reba Farwell’s deals get bigger and bigger, Becky

Farwell’s debt to Pierson spirals out of control. How long can the talented

Miss Farwell continue to pull off her double life?