MixedThe Irish Times...not quite a thriller, but a commendable detective story nonetheless, as the narrator makes it her business to find out the truth behind her art hero’s death ... For some inexplicable reason, [the protagonist] can’t tell her agent what’s happened to her paintings ... but Bourland doesn’t seem too interested in grounding her plot in reality ... An overegging of the ingenue card...ramps up the paint-by-numbers feel, as does the narrator’s tendency towards whinging and regret in a story peppered with shoulds and if-onlys. Syntax can be an issue at times, particularly when the voice is lost to invective ... All of the above feed into the main problem of the book, which is that it could have been edited down to a tighter, more thrilling read ... There is much within it that readers will love, however, particularly those with even a passing interest in the art world. The details of the narrator’s work are convincing, interesting and hit the sweet spot between technical knowledge and rich description.
