Why am I passionate about this?

Europe’s finest masterpieces drew me from Seattle, Washington to the Netherlands, where I earned a master’s degree in art history. During my study, the restitution of artwork that had been looted during WWII was a hot topic, and one that deeply fascinated me. Ultimately, my classes and work for several Dutch cultural institutions inspired me to write my series of art history mysteries.


I wrote

The Lover's Portrait

By Jennifer S. Alderson,

Book cover of The Lover's Portrait

What is my book about?

Museum intern Zelda Richardson is swept into the mystery surrounding artwork hidden from the Nazis during World War II. But…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Night Portrait: A Novel of World War II and Da Vinci's Italy

Jennifer S. Alderson Why did I love this book?

This sweeping dual-timeline novel takes readers inside the minds of German and Allied soldiers fighting to protect Europe’s artistic treasures during WWII, as well as to the 15th century court of the Duke of Milan. A portrait of one of his lordship’s mistresses, painted by Leonardo da Vinci, connects the two time periods.

I found it fascinating to travel to the frontlines of battle with the characters and search – sometimes fruitlessly – for the artwork that had been looted and hidden away by Nazi troops. This novel provides a fascinating insight into what the Monuments Men went through while trying to track down Europe’s most important cultural icons.

By Laura Morelli,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Night Portrait as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Historical fiction at its best' Reader review

The Tattooist of Auschwitz meets Girl with a Pearl Earring in this gripping, dual-timeline historical novel about one of Leonardo da Vinci's most famous paintings and the woman who fought to save it from the Nazis.

'Simply a masterpiece... Fans of Kristin Hannah's Nightingale and Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See will delight in this epic novel' Lori Nelson Spielman

Between 1939 and 1943, the Nazis attempted to steal every known painting by Leonardo Da Vinci, imprisoning the original owners or worse. This is the story of the most infamous of…


Book cover of The Art Forger

Jennifer S. Alderson Why did I love this book?

This intoxicating art history mystery was so good, I wanted to read it all over again the moment I finished it! The story follows an artist hired to make a perfect copy of a painting her client delivers to her studio, one she recognizes as having been stolen from the Gardner Museum years earlier. Yet is it really the lost Degas, or is it also a copy? This novel follows the artist’s descent into madness as she tries to unravel the mystery surrounding the painting’s origins and the unsolved theft. As a mystery fan, I was captivated by the twists and turns. As an art historian, it was wonderful to get lost in the art-infused storylines revolving around modern masters and their patrons.

By B.A. Shapiro,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Art Forger as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Almost twenty-five years after the infamous art heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum - still the largest unsolved art theft in history - one of the stolen Degas paintings is delivered to the Boston studio of a young artist. Claire Roth has entered into a Faustian bargain with a powerful gallery owner by agreeing to forge the Degas in exchange for a one-woman show in his renowned gallery. But as she begins her work, she starts to suspect that this long-missing masterpiece - the very one that had been hanging at the Gardner for one hundred years - may…


Book cover of Titian's Boatman

Jennifer S. Alderson Why did I love this book?

This complex novel is akin to going on a highly enjoyable journey through gorgeous settings and two distinct periods of time. A multitude of seemingly unrelated stories set in London, Venice, and New York City, slowly intertwine and merge throughout the novel. Revenge drives one character, the desire to reach a higher social standing another, fame and perhaps wealth motivates a third, and memories of better times keep a fourth going. Yet all of their stories are connected via a single painting, Titian’s Man With the Blue Sleeve. To find out how and why, you’ll have to read this captivating novel. 

By Victoria Blake,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Titian's Boatman as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

It is 1576 and Venice is in chaos, ravaged by plague and overrun by crime. In the midst of the anarchy we find those brave souls who have chosen not to flee the city. Titian, most celebrated of Venetian painters, his health failing badly. Sebastiano, a gondolier who is the eyes and ears of the corrupted and crumbling city. And Tullia, the most notorious courtesan of the age, who must fight to retain her status as well as her worldly possessions. In the present day, the echoes of what happened centuries earlier still ripple as the lives of ordinary people…


Book cover of The Art Whisperer

Jennifer S. Alderson Why did I love this book?

Alix London is the spunky lead character in Charlotte Elkins’ four-novel-long series of art mysteries. Alix is an art restorer with a sordid past, who is helping a rich Seattle businesswoman build up an art collection. The Art Whisperer is a fantastic story about forgeries, restoration, museum politics, and murder. Elkins is able to describe the art world in such a way that even those not interested in art history would enjoy this book and series. 

By Charlotte Elkins, Aaron Elkins,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Art Whisperer as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When art conservator Alix London spots a forgery, she knows trouble will follow. So she's understandably apprehensive when her connoisseur's eye spots something off about a multimillion-dollar Jackson Pollock painting at Palm Springs's Brethwaite Museum-her current employer.

Alix is already under fire, the object of a vicious online smear campaign. Now the Brethwaite's despicable senior curator, obsessed with the "maximization of monetized eyeballs," angrily refuses to decommission the celebrated Pollock piece. But it's only when a hooded intruder attacks Alix in her hotel room that the real trouble begins. And when FBI Special Agent Ted Ellesworth-with whom Alix had inadvertently,…


Book cover of Old Scores

Jennifer S. Alderson Why did I love this book?

No list about mysteries involving missing art can exclude Aaron Elkins! He is the author of several art history mystery novels revolving around a museum professional searching for artwork lost during World War II. Old Scores is no exception. This borderline cozy mystery novel is a clever art history mystery about forgeries, the worth and perception of art, and what some will do to 'make it' in the art world. 

By Aaron Elkins,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Old Scores as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A notorious French art dealer is murdered in this "thoroughly entertaining" mystery by the Edgar Award-winning author of the Gideon Oliver series (Kirkus Reviews).

It is a headline-making story: the discovery of a previously unknown Rembrandt. Rene Vachey, the iconoclastic art dealer who claims to have uncovered it, wants to make a gift of it to the Seattle Art Museum, but curator Chris Norgren is wary. Vachey is notorious in art circles for perpetrating scandalous shams; not for profit but for the sheer fun of embarrassing the elite and snobbish "experts" of the art establishment. And thanks to the web…


Explore my book 😀

The Lover's Portrait

By Jennifer S. Alderson,

Book cover of The Lover's Portrait

What is my book about?

Museum intern Zelda Richardson is swept into the mystery surrounding artwork hidden from the Nazis during World War II. But Zelda’s not the only one searching for the missing paintings—and her rival would kill to find them first…

Set in present-day and wartime Amsterdam, this story is as much about stolen paintings, as it is the plight of homosexuals and Jewish artists in Europe during World War II, and the complexities inherent to the restitution of artwork stolen by the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s.

Book cover of The Night Portrait: A Novel of World War II and Da Vinci's Italy
Book cover of The Art Forger
Book cover of Titian's Boatman

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