The Talented Miss Farwell
Fiction
William Morrow
September 29, 2020
Hardcover
352
Free from publisher
At the end of the 1990s, with the art market finally recovered from its disastrous collapse, Miss Rebecca Farwell has made a killing at Christie’s in New York City, selling a portion of her extraordinary art collection for a rumored 900 percent profit. Dressed in couture YSL, drinking the finest champagne at trendy Balthazar, Reba, as she’s known, is the picture of a wealthy art collector. To some, the elusive Miss Farwell is a shark with outstanding business acumen. To others, she’s a heartless capitalist whose only interest in art is how much she can make.
But a thousand miles from the Big Apple, in the small town of Pierson, Illinois, Miss Farwell is someone else entirely—a quiet single woman known as Becky who still lives in her family’s farmhouse, wears sensible shoes, and works tirelessly as the town’s treasurer and controller.
No one understands the ins and outs of Pierson’s accounts better than Becky; she’s the last one in the office every night, crunching the numbers. Somehow, her neighbors marvel, she always finds a way to get the struggling town just a little more money. What Pierson doesn’t see—and can never discover—is that much of that money is shifted into a separate account that she controls, “borrowed” funds used to finance her art habit. Though she quietly repays Pierson when she can, the business of art is cutthroat and unpredictable.
But as Reba Farwell’s deals get bigger and bigger, Becky Farwell’s debt to Pierson spirals out of control. How long can the talented Miss Farwell continue to pull off her double life?
My review:
Even though I've seen this one slotted in the mystery/thriller category, I would not call it that. I guess there are only so many genres to choose from, but I feel that people going into this one expecting thrills will not get what they were looking for. However, I did get what I was looking for, and if you've followed my blog, you'll know that I don't need a novel chock full of surprise twists to keep me entertained. I really enjoyed the slow buildup in this one as Miss Farwell gets herself further and further enmeshed in her schemes. I'll admit that it does drag down a bit when some background info on both the art world and finance are given, but those parts are definitely necessary to understand how the scheming works. As much as I wanted to not like her, Miss Farwell grew on me, as she would go out of her way to help others and has every intention to give everything back to the town. I was a huge fan of the ending, not too pollyannish, but with Becky making the most of herself as she did throughout the book.
As long as you don't go in expecting a mystery/thriller, this one is a fun exploration of obsessions and the old adage 'robbing Peter to pay Paul'. It just might make you want to attend your next town council meeting to check on the budget balancing!
