Book Review: The Frame Up by Gwenda Bond

Ten years in the past, Dani Poissant thought that she’d left her previous artwork heist crew behind for good. These days, she works as an itinerant con artist, touring from city to city and discovering straightforward marks, with a aspect of Robin Hood do-gooding alongside the way in which. Her solely companion is her beloved canine Sunflower, additionally a stray like herself, who gives the muscle when she will get into sticky conditions. It’s a lonely existence, however one she’s resigned herself to dwelling.

That each one adjustments when a mysterious determine reveals up whereas she’s in the course of slicing a deal. Archer is her estranged mom’s shadowy partner-in-crime, and he’s include a proposition for her. If she steals a single portray from an upcoming public sale, he’ll reconcile her along with her mom, the infamous artwork thief Maria Poissant, who’s refused to talk to her personal daughter since their epic falling out a decade prior:

Dani’s mom taught her properly sufficient, that issues that had been too good to be true had been all the time fakes, guarantees like this had been fairy mud that dissolved if you flipped the lights on. But, on this darkish bar, Dani felt hope in each beat of her coronary heart.

 

She realized she needed to say sure, for a number of causes. Archer was a thriller, nonetheless, in any case these years. This might give her an opportunity to pry, to unravel it, to determine who he was and what maintain he had on her mom.

 

That wasn’t probably the most engaging a part of his supply. She may hardly permit herself to ponder it. However suppose he may shut the abyss between her and her mom?

So towards her higher judgment, she agrees. When she hears the situations of the heist, her confidence sinks even additional. The Fortress of Artwork is well-known in inventive circles, because it’s rumored to be probably the most beneficial personal assortment on the earth. Extra intriguingly, it was jealously guarded by its proprietor, William Hackworth, who allowed nobody besides himself to view the contents. He’d constructed an elaborate safety system to make sure this, one which constantly foiled even probably the most expert artwork thieves, together with the Poissant crew themselves.

With William’s demise, his solely son and inheritor Brad is raring to eliminate the fortress’ contents, asserting an public sale to get rid of the artwork inside lower than a fortnight. This has, after all, set the artwork world on hearth with anticipation. Unsurprisingly, it’s additionally drawn the eye of criminals, who see a ripe alternative for illicit revenue, and the members of regulation enforcement sizzling on their trails.

As a part of the operation, Archer introduces Dani to Brad as a safety specialist. Sparks fly nearly instantly between the undercover prison and the charming billionaire, however Dani is aware of that that gained’t be sufficient to hold off the audacious heist. She’s going to want her previous crew again, in addition to the magical talents that made them one of the best artwork thieves on the earth. She and her crew had as soon as been so shut that they’d been virtually household, however they gained’t let her return to the fold with out a battle. How far will Dani go to win again their belief, when failure means the opportunity of by no means regaining her mom’s love?

It is a juicy paranormal crime caper with loads of household drama and a candy little love triangle. My favourite elements had been each the historic flashbacks and the musings on the ethics of the artwork market. Dani isn’t afraid to get her arms soiled with a purpose to proper injustices as a con artist, and has little sympathy for the rich individuals she robs:

Generally the artwork world acquired it proper, acknowledged true genius, rewarded it, and generally different causes and outcomes prevailed. There have been quite a lot of broke geniuses. Loads of lifeless, beneficial artists. And in the event that they grew to become well-known whereas they had been alive and had bought a portray for seventeen {dollars} after they had been youthful? The artists didn’t see one other dime on that piece if it abruptly grew to become value seventeen million {dollars} and another person bought it. That a part of what [her crew] did all the time made sense to Dani. It was an ecosystem they had been a part of balancing.

 

No completely different than every other con. Or enterprise.

I all the time get pleasure from a e book that displays thoughtfully on the ethics and historical past of artwork, particularly when it’s linked to a little bit mysticism, trendy or in any other case. I used to be considerably shocked that my favourite character wound up being Brad, particularly given my weak point for discovered household narratives—he was by far probably the most memorable and fleshed out member of this numerous forged. The ending of The Body-Up does trace at sequels to return, so I hope we’ll be seeing him and Dani once more in future novels.

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