Jessie Burton spins a 20th-century art mystery, set against 1960s London and the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, in The Muse. Young aspiring writer Odelle Bastien, working as a London salesgirl, sees her fortunes change when the mysterious Marjorie Quick offers her a job at the prestigious Skelton Institute of Art, where she comes to discover a potentially valuable painting. The director of the Skelton, Edmund Reede, believes it to be the work of Spanish artist Isaac Robles, who painted a handful of memorable pieces before disappearing during the Civil War. Quick, who has taken Odelle under her wing, does not share Reede's enthusiasm for presenting the canvas to the public, and Odelle becomes increasingly curious about Quick's secrets.
In alternating sections, the story of 19-year-old Olive Schloss unfolds. She keeps her acceptance to the Slade School of Art a secret from her tempestuous mother and art dealer father, for fear he will remind her that only men can be true artists. She soon meets Isaac and Teresa, the illegitimate offspring of a Spanish landowner. While teenaged Teresa develops a consuming devotion to Olive, older Isaac's commitment is to the revolutionary cause. As Olive's feelings for Isaac grow, Teresa makes a bold move that entangles all three in a web of deceit, with Olive's art at its center.
Burton proves, with a pair of superbly executed stories that echo each other, that The Miniaturist was no flash in the pan. Gorgeous and wistful, The Muse reminds us that art comes not from a vacuum, but from the passions of the human heart. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads