A historical fiction mystery fit for experienced art-lovers and novices alike! This mystery set in the 1970s London art world focuses on a Picasso: is the painting real, or the work of a master forger? The story-frame reveals well-drawn, nuanced and sympathetic characters who present mysteries of their own, including a budding artist and the tragic accident that haunts her family to this day, the transformation of a European immigrant into an art-gallery sophisticate (but is she a puppeteer or a marionette?), an art collector and purchaser of the Picasso (but is he a dupe or part of an audacious scheme?), and an art-educated law enforcement officer, on loan from New York. Author Reay also includes a broad-based look at many art masters and their works in a very satisfying and intriguing read. Don’t miss this one!

One of my favorite genres is books set in the art world. I enjoyed The English Masterpiece. This was a wonderful story about an art forgery that almost passed for real, if not for a young art assistant, Lily. who declares a Picasso to be a forgery- very loudly and very publicly at the opening night of the exhibit, throwing the international art world into a tizzy. Which turns into a mystery as her boss attempts to place the blame on Lily, while she conducts her own investigation, while racing against the clock, to find out who is behind this forgery. This is a fun book. If you are an art fun it is doubly fun! I am new to this author, but it is clear that Ms Reay conducted a massive amount of research on art and artists.

Thanks to Net Galley for this ARC opportunity.

London, England, 1973

“It’s a forgery.”

Recently, Lily was promoted to assistant keeper to Tate’s Modern Collection keeper Diana Gilden. Lily helps Diana plan and execute a world-class exhibit to showcase Picasso’s work after his recent death. This is everything that Lily is working towards to find her footing in the art world, which she wants to be a bigger part of.

Lily doesn’t tell anyone of her love of art, specifically her secret closet (a utility room) at St. Martin’s school, where the janitor, Paddy, has helped her create. Even her family has no idea.

The English Masterpiece is about authenticity, whether in the art world, your personal life, it’s about creating a believable facade around what you want others to believe about you that you start to believe the lies too. Once Diana realizes how easy it is to turn the blame onto Lily, her life turns into chaos.

This started slowly, but the layers kept coming, which kept me coming back. This was a darkish, slow-burning thriller in the art world, and I had no idea how addictive it would be for me. I loved how this centred around identity and who you are, without the influences that exist, whether we realize it or not. Recommended!

My gratitude to Netgalley and Harper Muse. All opinions expressed are honest and mine.

Overall, great story!

Lily is a young lady from the working class, living in the high-class world of art. When a misstep threatens to ruin her career and the very life she has built for herself, Lily is thrown into a world of chaos and must uncover the truth.

I feel like these characters were new territory for Reay, more complicated than other characters we've come across in other books. The story was fairly gripping, but I didn't find the romantic plot (which was very small in this novel) to be very believable. Overall though, it's a Katherine Reay book, and I've never been disappointed yet!

The premise of the English Masterpiece is fascinating: 1973, the art world, paintings, forgeries and the emergence of art plundered by the Nazis and its uncertain provenance. Yet this book, set in London, is written by an American for an American audience, and as a Londoner the Americanisms grated on me and made me feel that the story lacked authenticity. Then the frequent factual inaccuracies (there was no ‘headmaster’ in Saint Martins school of Art. The British Museum is the world's oldest national museum and didn’t open in 1973..) alienated me further. The descriptions of clothing labels, French wines and European decor to denote status and luxury feel like luxe details rather than character insight or world building. The Art world I was looking forward to learning more about was also lacking: Monet’s painting was described as ‘Chiaroscuro at its finest’. I’d argue Caravaggio is chiaroscuro at its finest. The writing felt superficial, rushed and simplistic to me, with everything overstated. This lack of subtlety and substance made me unable to face reading to the end which is rare for me. I couldn’t connect with the setting and the characters felt like fatuous tropes. . I think I am the wrong reader for this book. I suspect that someone who knows London from films and is interested in the art world as a glamorous backdrop would enjoy this book a great deal more.

I don't know much about art, but I really enjoyed this new novel by Katherine Reay. She does an excellent job of bringing the art to life through her descriptions. This was a mystery/thriller that kept me flipping pages into the night. It was difficult to put away the book to sleep. I liked that it was set in 1973, so the characters couldn't use technology to help them solve the mystery. I highly recommend this book.

I love a book about art. I love a book even more about art forgery and a mystery. I think books like this take so much talent from writers because of the historical aspects of the art world/artists that need to be researched. This is just top down, a wonderful read.

I love Diana and Lily's characters. They seem one way on the surface but as the story moves, we find out the layers of secrets hidden beneath. They aren't entirely who they say they are which makes this a complex read.

This is my first time reading Katherine Reay, but I can tell you that it won't be my last!

Thank you so much to Harper Muse and Netgalley for the eARC of this book!

I really enjoyed this historical fiction novel by Reay. It delves into the art world, forgeries, and the personal growth of a Young woman who gets entangled in a forgery scheme.

Lily and her manager Diana are having the best time organizing exhibitions for Tate London. It's The Seventies and art is having a moment.
The book starts out in a light, fun tone, showing the museum as the place to be.
But then Lily trips, one small action that has huge consequences.
The tone of the story changes to dark, unfair, anxious. Some characters are not who they're supposed to be. I keep looking over my shoulder and holding my breath.
Forgery, greed, betrayal, dominance, the usual suspects for a great psychological thriller.
Lily's creative nature is the tiny spark in this dark space. Seeing her evolve into her authentic self is a beautiful thing to watch.
The English Masterpiece is an attractive read, well written and properly paced.
After all that excitement I found the ending quite predictable.

Thank you Netgalley and Harper Muse for the ARC.

Although well written, I feel as though you had to be an art lover to really enjoy this. Yes, there was an air of mystery, but I was a little bit bored.

I received a free DRC of this book through Netgalley. I've read a couple of other books, by Katherine Reay, but this one really was hard to put down. The writing flowed well and as the POV changed between characters, it was easy to tell whose head we were in. Lily and Diana are both excellent main characters and I really enjoyed this book. I had to know what would happen at the end. I also LOVED that Pierce Brosnan had a cameo in the book as he has been one of my favorite actors since I was a teen.

I absolutely loved this story and I’m so impressed with Katherine Reay’s absorbing, thoughtful, well-researched writing. This story hit all the right notes and kept me engrossed all the way through. If you like history, art, mystery, or rich character development, this book is for you! Thank you NetGalley, for this advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for the chance to receive an ARC of this book. Please note there may be spoilers.
I was enamoured of the 70’s time frame and the setting of the Tate Art gallery for this intriguing story of the lowly assistant who declared “it’s a forgery” in front of all of the UK art world.
I appreciated Lily’s story of desperately wanting to move in to the world she admires so much. We can appreciate her beginnings on the sidelines of Saint Martin’s College in to getting her chance as the assistant to Diana Gilden, the Tate's modern collections keeper.
I struggled more with Diana’s story. I was intrigued for the humble beginnings of escaping Eastern Europe. It was a bit vague and perhaps not as informative or nuanced as Lily’s story. Sadly, this is where it fell apart for me, as we are meant to believe in 20 years she has gone from being a refuge of the war to the echelons of high society. That her husband Heinrich, also a refuge from Eastern Europe, has orchestrated this masterful rise with painting his forged masterpieces, I just struggled. That it all fell in to place before Lily came along and outed them.
I enjoyed the book regardless but I was less enthused as when I started it.

My thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. This is an excellent book about art and one does not need to know about art. The intrigue begins around a Picasso exhibition that goes off the rails. The threads are woven so well with good character development. It becomes a thriller as solving a crime becomes the focal point of the book. Family and love figure in along the way. A great read!

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. As with all of her novels I am so impressed with the amount of research involved in the writing of this story. It took me a little while to get into it but it was so worth it. It centers around two women working in a museum and forgery! Highly enjoyable.

The English Masterpiece by Katherine Reay was an enjoyable read, especially as my first introduction to her work. The writing was engaging, and I really appreciated the depth of research into the art world, particularly the focus on art forgery and its historical context. It was clear that a lot of effort went into the details, which added to the richness of the story.

I liked both Lily and Diana, though I found myself more drawn to some of the secondary characters (i.e. Daisy, Connor), and I wish they had been featured more often. I didn’t mind the pacing, but I did think the first half was weaker than the second—granted, it was mysterious, so maybe I was just confused at the time.

Despite that, I thought the ending came a bit too quickly for my taste. While some readers have found the characters a little hard to connect with, and the pacing slower in parts, the novel’s historical depth and the intriguing plot make it worth reading, especially if you’re into art.

The English Masterpiece is a wonderful story, fast paced story that totally kept me enthralled right up to the end. I couldn't wait to get back to the book and once I picked it up I couldn’t put it down! The story is about Lily who works for Diana as her assistant in the art world. The mystery which evolves around the Picasso exhibition introduces so many aspects of painters that it made me want to get to a museum to see if I could see the paintings with a new eye. The story includes family dynamics, deception and great artists.

I received an advanced copy of the book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest feedback

London 1973. Pablo Picasso has died and art galleries worldwide are racing to put together a collection of his paintings for public exhibitions, in order to honour the master.
At the Tate Gallery, London, Diana Browning, keeper of Modern Collections and her assistant Lily, are likewise occupied. Lily has ambitions to be an artist and is studying at St. Martin’s College of Art. She copies the paintings she sees at work in order to understand the brushstrokes and composition details.
A fortnight later, all is ready for the public viewings. Lily notices a painting, The Laughing Woman, and realises that something is wrong. She loudly declares, “ that is a forgery!” Consternation all around! The Press cannot believe their luck at such a headline, the Director of the galley wants Lily to leave, the provenance of the painting is in doubt, and will have to be re- authenticated.
Connor Walsh, an Art Investigator starts work at the Tate, could this be an insurance scam? Who has the necessary skills to perform such a forgery?
Connor has a degree in art history and a police background that will be very interesting with such pressure in the art world.
As museums demand their paintings to be returned, Lily finds herself under suspicion.
A wonderful story that will appeal to all those who love to dabble with paints, visit galleries and like to gain extra knowledge about colours.
Lily learns the importance of finding her own style, and to care more for her family members.
There is a budding romance, which helps with a happy ending for most of the characters, the real life story didn’t work so well.
I gave this a four star read. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers Harper Muse, for my complimentary copy of this book, given in return for my honest review. All opinions expressed are completely my own.
I will leave copies to Goodreads and Amazon UK upon publication.

Set in the Art World in the 1970s, "The English Masterpiece" follows Lily Summers. She works at the Tate Art gallery and dreams of one day seeing her own masterpiece hang in the gallery. A discovery of a forged painting launches our FMC to the center of an investigation.

I really really enjoyed the book. An art heist and the setting of 1970s London was compelling in itself. But then relationship of Lily to those around her really adds a complexity to the main character and helps understand her. I seriously could not put this book down. Not quite a 5 star read but definitely a 4 to 4.5 star read.

This book releases June 10, 2025.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

A riveting tale set in 1973 London centered around the shady world of art forgery. Mystery, intrigue, and hints of romance kept this fast-paced story interesting. Lily's eye-opening experience to the world around her after she accidentally blurts out loud, "It's as forgery!", becomes a time of personal epiphany as she sees herself in a new light. Being authentic, cherishing family and friends, and being true to your own dreams become new themes in her life. The scenes towards the end were terrific, with some action, and well worth the wait. This was a good clean read, one that made me think, plus the nods to real people and places made it a fun 'getaway' read.
Recommend! 4.5 stars