Try free for 30 days

Preview

1 credit a month to buy any audiobook in our entire collection.
Access to thousands of additional audiobooks and Originals from the Plus Catalogue.
Member-only deals & discounts.
Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

A Painted Smile

By: Frances Fyfield
Narrated by: Sean Barrett
Try Premium Plus free

$16.45 per month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $21.99

Buy Now for $21.99

Pay using voucher balance (if applicable) then card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions Of Use and Privacy Notice and authorise Audible to charge your designated credit card or another available credit card on file.

Publisher's Summary

Young, rich widow Diana Porteous has inherited a vast collection of paintings, but she feels without purpose again. Then her beloved stepgrandson comes up with the idea for an exhibition of portraits with the title A Question of Guilt.

It starts as a joke, but soon they are preparing the huge wine cellar of the old schoolhouse by the sea, in spite of those with misgivings as to its suitability. Soon Di has plenty to occupy her: a mysterious woman encourages Di and her friend, Sarah Fortune, both natural thieves, to steal from a public collection. And then there's the life-drawing class, where an artist dies and someone steals from him, placing his finds in the cellar.

A novel of conundrums, paintings, moral uncertainties and family relationships, A Painted Smile continues the adventures of two of Frances Fyfield's most beloved characters and will win over many more fans of quality fiction.

©2015 Frances Fyfield (P)2015 Hachette Audio

Critic Reviews

Reviews for Gold Digger: "This excellent mystery, complete with crimes, clues and red herrings, is also a novel of character and a very good one too." (Literary Review)
"Fyfield specialises in sympathetic portraits of social misfits and the misunderstood.... This is a subtle but razor-sharp dissection of a family at war." (Guardian)
"A novel of character in which fully realised protagonists are developed with a skill approaching that of such writers as Iris Murdoch.... Her understanding of the way human beings behave when jealousy and resentment power their actions remains as insightful as ever." (Independent)
"This humane and beautifully written novel is full of almost sensuous detail not just about art but about living itself. Classic Fyfield, in other words, and highly recommended." (Spectator)
"Frances Fyfield is an original...[she] writes with such persuasive beauty and emotional subtlety." (The Times)
"Frances Fyfield is a veteran crime writer, and it shows here, with her novel well constructed and fittingly suspenseful." (Sunday Business Post Ireland)

What listeners say about A Painted Smile

Average Customer Ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.