Sant­lofer is the author of six best­selling nov­els, among them The Death Artist, and Nero award-win­ning Anato­my of Fear. His mem­oir, The Wid­ow­er’s Note­book, received nation­al acclaim and was fea­tured on NPR​’s Fresh Air with Ter­ry Gross. He is the editor/​creator of sev­en antholo­gies, the recip­i­ent of two NEA grants, Vis­it­ing Artist at the Amer­i­can Acad­e­my in Rome, and serves on the board of Yad­do. He is a not­ed speaker.

The Last Mona Lisa

A grip­ping nov­el explor­ing the secrets of the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa and the dark under­bel­ly of today’s art world. A sto­ry of heart-stop­ping sus­pense as roman­tic and sexy as it is ter­ri­fy­ing and thrilling, one that taps into our uni­ver­sal fas­ci­na­tion with da Vin­ci, the authen­tic and the fake, and peo­ple so dri­ven to acquire price­less works of art, they will stop at noth­ing to pos­sess them‚ not even murder.

The Past, August 1911: The Mona Lisa is stolen by muse­um work­er Vin­cent Perug­gia. Dur­ing its two-year absence from the Lou­vre, repli­cas of the paint­ing are cre­at­ed and sold as the orig­i­nal by a noto­ri­ous duo of con artists. Sev­er­al of these forg­eries remain at large, prompt­ing more than one art his­to­ri­an to spec­u­late that the muse­um might well be dis­play­ing a fake.

The Present: Artist and art pro­fes­sor Luke Per­rone hunts for the truth behind his most infa­mous ances­tor, Perug­gia. His search attracts a reck­less INTER­POL detec­tive with some­thing to prove, a beau­ti­ful woman who may want more than Luke’s affec­tion, and a hor­net’s nest of the most unscrupu­lous art col­lec­tors and thieves.