Irreplaceable

"I couldn't put it down. Irreplaceable is a wonderful romp that will make a fantastic movie. Irreplaceable is irresistible!"-Cybill Shepherd."Charles Pinning has written a terrific novel about the responsibility of taking care of children, middle-age relationships, the great Gardner Museum heist, crooked politicians and exasperating art world people. It has fast-paced and yet evocative description, vivid characters, sharp and often very funny dialogue and a rich sense of New England...
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"I couldn't put it down. Irreplaceable is a wonderful romp that will make a fantastic movie. Irreplaceable is irresistible!"-Cybill Shepherd."Charles Pinning has written a terrific novel about the responsibility of taking care of children, middle-age relationships, the great Gardner Museum heist, crooked politicians and exasperating art world people. It has fast-paced and yet evocative description, vivid characters, sharp and often very funny dialogue and a rich sense of New England places, especially Rhode Island, Boston and Massachusetts's North Shore. It would also make a hell of a movie."-Robert B. Whitcomb, Editor of the Editorial Pages, The Providence Journal.Things have a way of working out-just not the way we think they will.Swanson and Aleda are about to see each other for the first time in 34 years. She's coming to Providence, Rhode Island to fulfill a long-held dream of making a movie about the life of Victorian art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner, and he's worried about the shingles sliding off the roof...the worn runner going up the stairs...Raaah! But his genteel shabbiness will soon be the least of his worries.The night Aleda arrives, the RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) Museum is robbed of important Degas pastels in a theft reminiscent of the unsolved 1990 theft of over $500 million in art from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Two days later, the RISD Museum director disappears and Swanson inherits her adopted children, a 13 year old boy, and a 10 year old girl.Believing there is a connection between the children's deceased mother who worked at the Gardner when it was robbed and the disappearance of their aunt, the RISD Museum director, Swanson is convinced he can solve the Gardner theft and consequently the RISD theft, thereby clarifying a muddy history, to say nothing of winning the Gardner's $5 million reward.Aleda has faith in Swanson, and together these unconventional sleuths fend off a maniacal DCYF case worker who wants to take the children away from Swanson, shoot a big-budget, studio movie and care for two young children. Providence, WaterFire, the Wheeler School and the Dirt Palace; Newport, the Chanler Hotel, the Cliff Walk and Rose Island; Fenway Park, the Gardner Museum and a terrifying buying spree at the Hermès store on the Boston Public Garden sparkle and delight as Swanson and Aleda passionately pursue the stolen Gardner art and their own deferred dreams for love and a family.This brilliant and irreverent novel proves that it takes unconventional sleuths to solve an unconventional crime. All those interested in the Gardner heist will be enthralled. Meticulously researched and inventively constructed, this novel lays bare the moving force behind the theft in a story for lovers and lovers of art everywhere.