The Van Gogh Deception

Part 1 opens with an epigraph from Vincent van Gogh’s letter to his brother, Theo, where he states they must “make an effort like the lost, like the desperate” (4).

Chapter 1 begins with a flashback to the village of Locronan, France, a few years before the novel’s main setting in Washington, DC. Victor Baudin has set up a special laboratory in a 300-year-old stone barn. Fluorescent lights, heat and cooling ducts, and a large metal table fill the space. Dark bottles and their exotic contents like “dragon’s blood,” “powdered mummy,” and “cat’s tongue” line his shelves (5). Baudin compares himself to an alchemist and wizard for his latest masterpiece, a work that took him three years to produce. The narrative refers to the piece only as his “creation” (5), one of many stacked on drying racks in his studio.

An unnamed man enters the barn on behalf of an anonymous client who pays Baudin in cash for his work. He commends Baudin for his detailed craftsmanship, the “authentic” touches of dust on the back of the work (8), and a surface that leaves no mark from a fingernail scratch. Baudin assures his visitor the other creations are of the same high quality. The two men destroy evidence of their arrangement and burn a large folder of paperwork. Baudin compares himself to an alchemist who can turn lead into gold and takes pride in his creations, which are later revealed to be forged paintings.

Chapter 2 begins in a parking garage in Washington, DC, on a late evening in December. A tall, middle-aged man deletes all the data from his phone and frantically searches for a way out of the garage. Two men pursue him: a young man in a black SUV blocking the exit and a large man blocking the elevators. The middle-aged man attempts to reach a service door he spots in the distance. He discretely knocks on the trunk of his car as a signal and then carefully counts 20 seconds as he walks toward the door. The young man fires his gun at him but misses. Ricocheted pieces of concrete cut the middle-aged man’s neck, and the young man intercepts him at gunpoint before he reaches the service door. The young man demands that the middle-aged man hand over what he has, and the middle-aged man feigns ignorance. The young man tells his associate to take care of their bleeding captive.

The following day, a docent at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, discovers a boy sitting in front of an Edgar Degas sculpture near closing time. The chapter provides a QR code that directs readers to the National Gallery of Art’s website and an image of the sculpture Little Dancer Aged Fourteen (1878-1881). The boy quietly admits he does not know his own name, and a social worker takes him to the hospital for examination. The doctors diagnose him with a form of amnesia set on by a traumatic event and assure him his memory will return when he is ready. The only clue to his identity is his blue jacket with the name Arthur on its tag. However, the name doesn’t sound familiar to him.

At the police station, the boy sits in the waiting room and stares at a television set he muted. Detective Brooke Evans interviews him and wonders if he has run away from home. She believes he is telling the truth when he says he has lost his memory. The boy can only guess that he is around 12-years-old. Detective Evans tells him her son shares his blond hair and green eyes and that she would miss her son if he disappeared. She promises to help the boy in any way she can.

Mary Sullivan, a patient and experienced foster parent, provides the boy with temporary placement. Although she is busy with her work as a senior editor of a book publisher, the unusual circumstance of his case and the upcoming Christmas holiday convince her to agree to his being placed with her. The boy worries that he has no clothes or a toothbrush, and Mary reassures him and finds him to be polite. As Mary leaves the police station with the boy, Detective Evans puzzles over the mystery. She acknowledges the slight chance she may be wrong, but she believes the boy is telling the truth.

The boy sits in relative silence and stares out the car window as Mary drives through a light snow. Before they head home, Mary picks up her 10-year-old daughter, Camille, who was staying at her Aunt Judy’s. Camille is boisterous and friendly, and when her mother explains the boy has amnesia, she immediately asks him if he knows how many fingers she is holding up or if he even remembers what fingers and numbers are. She offers to name him Theo, after her dead pet turtle, and is unimpressed when he tells her the name Arthur is on his jacket.

The boy is at first defensive when Camille questions his memory and notices how she looks nothing like her mother. Her bright red hair stands in contrast to Mary’s dark neat bun. He feels embarrassed about his name but agrees to Camille’s suggestion to call himself “Art.” Camille bursts into laughter when he tells her it’s better than being named after a dead turtle. The boy then manages a small smile when he thinks he’ll enjoy the spaghetti dinner they planned for the evening, a sign that he may be remembering something about himself.

The narrative shifts to a different location on that same evening—an apartment complex—and introduces Dorchek Palmer, a young-looking 28-year-old who has made millions as a gaming apps developer and tech consultant. Bored with his riches, Palmer seeks thrills and risks, and his latest scheme led him to the events from Chapter 2. He is gradually revealed to be the young man with the gun in the black SUV. In this chapter, Palmer and his team of spy-tech operatives break into an apartment to search for an item they refer to as “the spider” (29). Their search turns up empty, but they confiscate a laptop. Clues about a recovered cellphone suggest they are in the middle-aged man’s apartment and the boy is somehow connected. Palmer believes the key to finding the spider lies with the boy who got away from them the night before.

The narrative returns to the Sullivans’ home where Mary explains to her daughter that the boy is lost and needs to feel safe. Camille, who finds Art to be nice but quiet, promises to watch over him.

That Friday evening, the boy has a dream where he stands before a metal gate. He is lost and alone in the dark of night, and his calls for help go unanswered. He wakes up with a jolt and believes the dream is connected to something real that he can’t remember. He becomes frustrated that he can remember everything about his evening with the Sullivans but nothing about his own personality, his preferences, or his pet peeves.

On Saturday morning, Mary shows the boy an article in the papers seeking any information about his identity. Camille ecstatically declares he’s a celebrity. When Mary serves some hot chocolate, Art stares intently at the painting of a harbor imprinted on Camille’s favorite mug. He tells them he knows the painting is by Claude Monet and that the Impressionist movement is named after the painting’s title, Impression, Sunrise. To everyone’s surprise, he tells them he knows about the work because he has seen it in Paris. A QR code links to this painting at the Marmottan Museum of Monet in Paris.

That same morning, Palmer jogs around the National Mall and plans his next steps. He has only two days to find the boy and destroy the spider, and his search for the item on the laptop and cellphone came up empty. When he sees a photo of the boy in the papers, he sets his team into action.

Back at the Sullivans’ home, Art describes in detail the museum in Paris where he saw the Monet painting. Mary concurs that his description of the locale is accurate, but Art cannot recall anything more precise about the person he remembers accompanying him.

Meanwhile, Palmer searches through the confiscated laptop to pull up a photo of a blond, middle-aged man standing next to a young blond boy. The photo was taken in front of the National Monument four days earlier. Palmer crosschecks the boy’s image in the newspaper with the photo and sends a cropped copy of the picture to his team.

That same morning, Camille quizzes Art nonstop about his favorite film, food, and flavor of jelly. She jokingly tells him he’s wrong each time his answer doesn’t match up with hers. When she asks if he’s ever been to London, he recalls with clarity a painting with an anamorphic skull. A QR code provides a link to Hans Holbein the Younger’s painting, The Ambassadors, at the National Gallery in London.

Camille’s series of questions prompts Art’s own curiosity about her, and he abruptly asks where her father is. He acknowledges that families come in diverse forms and wonders if he asked anything inappropriate. Camille nonchalantly responds she never met her father and isn’t saddened by the fact. He had never wanted children, and Mary raised her on her own. Art tells Camille he thinks Mary is great.

The narrative shifts to Palmer at a coffee shop where he meets with Dr. Belette, an older man in his late fifties with a tweed jacket and mustache. Palmer assures Belette the boy has amnesia and that he will find the boy and destroy the spider. Belette asks Palmer what he will do with the child, and Palmer replies that it’s better he doesn’t know.

Later that Saturday afternoon, Mary takes Camille and the boy to the National Gallery of Art in hopes of jogging his memory. Before they leave the house, Art stares at his reflection in the mirror. He can’t recall anything about his name or address yet has an acute knowledge of art history. He finds his expertise in the paintings unusual for a boy his age, but he also doesn’t feel alarmed. Mary, Camille, and the boy walk to the metro station as the weather drops below freezing. Art discovers in his jacket pockets random objects: pennies, lint, a tissue, and a piece of plastic with “WB WEST 28” engraved on it. He plans to toss the items in the trash when they reach the museum.

Meanwhile, Palmer visits the police station and pretends to be the boy’s older brother. He convinces Detective Neil Wasberger that the boy’s name is Taylor Patrick Howell and that he has a history of lying and disappearing without telling anyone his whereabouts. According to Detective Wasberger, the boy was found in Gallery 83 of the museum. Palmer uses the false name David and shows Detective Wasberger the photo of the boy he stole from the computer. He gives the detective a false ID and fake address, making sure to use his left hand and brandish a fake tattoo to disguise his real identity. Detective Wasberger believes Palmer’s story and provides him with Mary Sullivan’s contact information to arrange to pick up the boy. Palmer uses the information on his iPad to pull up pictures of Mary and Camille and their vehicle information to track them down. He looks up the map of the museum to pinpoint Gallery 83 and becomes troubled when he sees the van Gogh paintings exhibited in that room.

When they disembark at the Archives metro station, Mary, Camille, and Art walk past major monuments like the Navy Memorial and the National Archives. The weather is darker and colder, and they struggle to walk through the biting wind. They reach the National Gallery of Art, and Camille explains the museum’s banners are promoting an upcoming exhibition.

The museum recently purchased a newly recovered van Gogh painting previously believed to have been destroyed in World War II. The painting, The Park at Arles with Entrance Seen Through the Trees, sold for $183 million. The banners ignite a rush of information about van Gogh’s life and work to the boy’s mind. A QR code links to the painting Still Life of Oranges and Lemons with Blue Gloves (1889) at the National Gallery of Art’s website. Art recalls being in Arles in person and gets a strong impression that the location is of importance. However, he can’t pinpoint why and hides his knowledge to keep Mary from worrying.

At that same time, Detective Wasberger leaves a message on Mary’s answering machine to inform her the boy’s brother (Palmer in disguise) will contact her. He postpones calling social services to update them on the case and decides to phone them after his lunch. Also around the same time, a woman from Palmer’s team arrives at the Sullivan’s residence in a fake delivery truck. She reports back to Palmer that the house is empty. From his covert apartment, Palmer tracks the apps on Mary’s phone to locate her. He checks the time and hopes that Belette will fulfill his end of their arrangement without any hitches.

Mary takes a photo of Camille and the boy in front of the museum, which triggers Palmer’s tracking monitor. Palmer recognizes their location right away and notifies his team to assemble at the National Gallery of Art.