The Velázquez painting known as the Rokeby Venus hangs in the National Gallery in London. It was badly slashed by a suffragette in 1914. Not that suffragettes have anything to do with this novel, which is a tale of art, forgery and crime. The Forgery of Venus is a book of questions, doubts and shifting realities.

For that hard look at how the lowliest in society are exploited, and how they are cut down if they escape from their subjugation.