False Impression Read online

  “But before you agree, Anna, that there’s something I have to tell you,” said Jack, as Mr. Nakamura’s car disappeared down the drive and out of the gates.

  “And what’s that?” asked Anna, turning back to face him.

  “My mother is under the illusion that you’ve already been married three times, you have five children, not necessarily by the three husbands, four of them are on hard drugs, and the other one is currently serving a jail sentence.” He paused. “She also thinks that you work in a far older profession than art consultancy.”

  Anna burst out laughing. “But what will you tell her when she discovers that none of it’s true?”

  “You’re not Irish,” said Jack.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Although Van Gogh cut off part of his left ear with a razor following a row with Gauguin, it still remains a mystery why his right ear is covered with a bandage in both self-portraits.

  Art historians, including Louis van Tilborgh, Curator of Paintings at the Van Gogh Museum, are convinced that the artist painted the picture while looking in a mirror.

  Tilborgh points out that Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo in September 1888, after buying a mirror to help him with his work (letter number 685 in the 1990 edition of Van Gogh’s letters, and number 537 in the 1953 (English) edition of his correspondence).

  The mirror was left at Arles when the artist moved on to Saint-Remy. However, Van Gogh wrote another letter to J. Ginoux (May 11, 1890, 634a in the English edition, 872 in the Dutch edition), asking Ginoux to “take good care of the mirror.”

  Van Gogh is known to have painted two self-portraits with bandaged ear. One can be viewed at the Courtauld Institute at Somerset House in London. The second remains in a private collection.

  From Van Gogh’s letter to his brother, Theo, September 17, 1888

  Copyright © Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent Van Gogh Foundation)

  A Timeline of Bestsellers in the Auction World, 1980–2005

  ALSO BY JEFFREY ARCHER

  NOVELS

  Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less

  Shall We Tell the President?

  Kane and Abel

  The Prodigal Daughter

  First Among Equals

  A Matter of Honor

  As the Crow Flies

  Honor Among Thieves

  The Fourth Estate

  The Eleventh Commandment

  Sons of Fortune

  SHORT STORIES

  A Quiver Full of Arrows

  A Twist in the Tale

  Twelve Red Herrings

  To Cut a Long Story Short

  The Collected Short Stories

  PLAYS

  Beyond Reasonable Doubt

  Exclusive

  The Accused

  SCREENPLAY

  Mallory: Walking Off the Map

  PRISON DIARIES

  Volume One: Hell

  Volume Two: Purgatory

  Volume Three: Heaven

  FALSE IMPRESSION. Copyright © 2006 by Jeffrey Archer. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

  www.stmartins.com

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Archer, Jeffrey, 1940–

  False impression / Jeffrey Archer.—1st U.S. ed.

  p. cm.

  eISBN: 978-0-312-35372-8

  Date of eBook conversion: 07/16/2010

  1. Missing persons—Fiction. 2. Art thefts—Fiction. 3. Revenge—Fiction. I. Title.

  PR6051.R285F35 2006

  823'.914—dc22

  2005054291

  First published in Australia by Macmillan, an imprint of Pan Macmillan Ltd.

  First U.S. Edition: March 2006