The Estate
A Novel
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3.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
A Town & Country Best Book of November!
Named a Most-Anticipated book by Crime Reads, Criminal Element, The Nerd Daily, and more!
"The world of art is blown wide open" (Jonathan Santlofer, national bestselling author of The Lost Van Gogh) in this simmering speculative suspense for fans of The Cartographers that follows art historian Camille Leray, whose secret ability lands her in the middle of the dangerous schemes of the most powerful players in the industry…
Art historian Camille Leray has spent her career surrounding herself with fineries and selling pieces worth millions. But she harbors a secret: she has the ability to enter the world of any piece of artwork, and she can take others with her. But tapping into history comes with great risks. And someone has been watching, someone who knows about her magic, and her mistakes...
After Camille ruins her career and reputation by misusing her powers, she vows to get her old life back. So when Maxime Foucault, an enigmatic aristocrat who owns a sprawling French estate, enlists her help in authenticating the statues of a mysterious artist, whose disappearance she has been trying to solve for years, she knows this could be her chance to turn her career around and get the man she's always wanted.
But something isn't right about the Foucault family and the grand chateau they inhabit, and as Camille gets sucked into its walls, she finds a world of luxury and greed that causes her to risk losing herself, and everything she has ever known, forever.
Filled with magic, suspense, the allure of Arthurian legend, and dark academia, The Estate unravels a mystery that spans generations—while blurring the fine lines between reality and imagination, creation and destruction, and being haunted or free.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Jost (Five First Chances) stumbles in this awkward fantastical story of an art historian who can see into the inner lives of long-dead artists by viewing their work. Camille Leray has used her uncanny ability to build an impressive career specializing in 19th-century sculptor Constance Sorel, a contemporary of Auguste Rodin. When a lost piece of Sorel's is discovered, Camille inspects it and encounters its creator's twisted mental landscape, which doesn't match up with her impression of Sorel. Suspicious of the sculpture's provenance, she ruins her career and reputation by making a scene at the auction house's showcase of the work, where she claims it's a fake. When Maxime Foucault, a mysterious French aristocrat whose family were once Sorel's patrons, discovers more of Sorel's lost works and asks Camille to authenticate them, she seizes the chance to revive her career and piece together the mystery behind Sorel's disappearance at the height of her productivity. At the Foucault estate, where Sorel once lived, Camille uncovers secrets about the artist's connection to the family, and about the estate's connection to the legend of King Arthur (Maxime claims the crystal palace on the property was crafted by Merlin for the Lady of the Lake). As Camille learns more about Sorel, Jost reveals that the artist's mental health was less sound than Camille believed. Unfortunately, Jost's depiction of Sorel's instability feels hackneyed, and the frequent Arthurian references are heavy-handed. Readers can take a pass.
