Woman with Eyes Closed - Hardcover

by Rue Matthiessen (Author)

Named to Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2025

"By slow and steady degrees, Matthiessen takes all the familiar elements of the standard heist thriller and transforms them into something more.... A riveting and richly nuanced art-crime novel." Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

On a full moon night in Rotterdam, three Dutch thieves break into the Kunsthal museum and steal four paintings-including two Monets, a Picasso, and Woman with Eyes Closed. Inspired by the real 2012 art heist, this literary thriller follows British MI-6 agent Kit Hobbs, who is unexpectedly assigned to the case. A tip leads him to Sagaponack, New York, where the Monets may be hidden in the bunker of a Russian mobster with a beach house-and a taste for stolen masterpieces.

Just down the beach, Perrin Clayton-daughter of a once-famous abstract expressionist painter-is newly married to art-world superstar Jack Triplett. Their glamorous Hamptons life dazzles from the outside, but something vital is missing. When Kit, whose connection is Jack's gallerist, meets Perrin at a party in the Russian's home, he notices the mobster's fascination with her-and devises a risky plan to draw her into his investigation.

​

Meanwhile, the thieves are on the run, their alliance unraveling. As Kit and Perrin are pulled deeper into each other's lives, and a hurricane barrels toward the coast, the fate of Woman with Eyes Closed hangs in the balance-along with their own uncertain futures.