New York, 1893, and society portrait painter Piero Piambo feels his artistic ambition waning, even while he immortalizes the city's nouveaux riches in oil paints. But then he receives a bizarre and lucrative commission to paint the mysterious Mrs Charbuque. The catch is that he is not allowed to see her, and so Piambo sits before a screen as his sitter tells him of her life, dreams, and fears -- clues from which he must divine her visage.
As he works, a series of murders plagues the city -- deaths that at first seem accidental. And, as Piambo's masterpiece takes shape, his relationship with Mrs Charbuque grows ever more tangled while her deranged husband becomes hell-bent on some inexplicable vengeance.
- ISBN10 0066211263
- ISBN13 9780066211268
- Publish Date 4 June 2002
- Publish Status Out of Stock
- Publish Country US
- Imprint William Morrow & Company
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 320
- Language English