A national bestseller in hardcover, the 14th Joanne Kilbourn novel is as rich in human drama as all the series: Jo and Zack’s young daughter’s precocious artistic talent draws the attention of people who may not be at all what they seem. A treat for readers of Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache series as well as Gail Bowen’s devoted fans.

Jo and Zack are both proud and a little concerned when their youngest daughter Taylor — whose birth mother was a brilliant but notorious artist — has two paintings chosen for a major fund-raising auction. One they’ve seen; Taylor has kept the other, a portrait of a young male artist’s model, in her studio. Their concern grows when it becomes clear (and quite public) that the young man is the lover of the older socialite who organized the fund-raiser.

Soon, an ugly web of infidelity, addiction, and manipulation seems to be weaving itself around the Kilbourn-Shreve family. Jo and Zack are doing their best to keep everyone safe, but when one of the principal players in the drama is found murdered, events begin to spiral, Taylor seems to be drifting further away, and their very darkest fears seem about to be realized.

The Gifted reconfirms Gail Bowen’s incomparable ability to weave the domestic with the dramatic, and to explore the dark side of human nature while keeping the life-affirming pillars of family and friendship standing.