The Art Forger, B.A. Shapiro, 2012 

An entertaining and fast moving novel with a nice mix of the factual (the Gardner Museum heist in 1990) and the fanciful.  Shapiro creates some memorable characters in Claire Roth and Aiden Markley and then puts them through their paces as the intrigue grows around the missing Degas painting.  Is Markley’s real?  Is the “original” Gardner Degas real?  Who knows what about whom?   I listened to the first half of this book on CD in the car back and forth to Vermont and read the second half, finding the listening experience to be superior.  This is likely a reflection on the contemporary style of the writing which is quite conducive to the spoken voice.  A good, light, and Boston-oriented novel.