Painting by Numbers

Painting by Numbers by Tom Gillespie is a gritty, nail-biting thriller, that chronicles one man’s obsession with a painting in the local museum. Jacob Boyce is an Earth Scientist and professor at a Glasgow university, and spends hours everyday observing, measuring, and calculating angles, ostensibly as part of his earthquake research. He thinks the painting is changing and moving as a result of the angles and use of colour.

His obsession takes a toll on his job and his relationship with his wife. Their relationship is crumbling, and they fight all the time. Or do they? When his wife disappears, he follows her to the family villa in Spain, where he thinks she is. It is there things really start to get interesting, and the plot takes many a winding road to the climax.

The end is a shocker, and totally unexpected, and made me shake my head and say “Whaaat?” Not very literary of me, I know, but I did not see it coming. A must read! 9/10.

An E-book published by Crooked Cat Publishing