A GLARING ERROR

            Ida Mayhew, the enigmatic artist known as Aunt Ida throughout the close-knit, southern community of Mimosa, Mississippi, is normally the picture of self-control and not-so-quiet confidence about her level of expertise. But her world is turned upside down when a flamboyant new artist arrives sporting an outrageous look, loads of talent, and a name that instantly involves his idol, Vincent van Gogh.

            Ida, both amused and repulsed by this sham of a man, swiftly moves to show him who’s boss following the glowing newspaper coverage he receives from neighbor and college student Beth Brinkmann, a fledgling reporter and budding artist in her own right whom Ida mentored. But the more Ida is around the man who calls himself Vin-SENT VAN-Go, the more familiar to her he seems. Could he have a connection to a past that Ida shares with no one?

            The final volume of the trilogy that began with Forsaking Mimosa and continued with The Dance Between, Valerie Winn’s A Glaring Error is a gripping coming-of-age story that returns much of the cast from her first two novels, including beloved photographer Max Brinkmann, Beth’s father. When Aunt Ida has the perfect chance to establish herself once and for all as a Mimosa treasure, a careless mistake in a crucial painting forces her to decide what kind of person she wants to be.