“ A breakneck romp of a novel with a stolen Vermeer, a tangled love triangle, a half-baked heist and enough depraved opulence to make Gatsby gasp. ” — People
“ This novel pops— Cosmopolitan, sexy, and funny. ” — Percival Everett, New York Times-bestselling author of James
The White Lotus meets The Talented Mr. Ripley in this high-spirited novel of a stolen Vermeer, a Polish transplant in LA, and the charismatic couple who seduce her into a misguided international heist
One bright Los Angeles day, a young Polish é migré named Viva is driving along the freeway when she’ s flagged down by a dazzling, disheveled woman in green chiffon. The woman is Bobby Sleeper, a fellow Eastern European and an erstwhile art gallerist with a mysterious background and even more mysterious filmmaker husband. Within days the couple hire Viva as their assistant, then enlist her as an accomplice in an improbable scheme involving a long-lost Vermeer masterwork, a multi-million-dollar reward, and several shadowy ex-husbands.
As Bobby and her husband weave her ever more tightly into their web, Viva is swept up in an escapade that’ s one part art heist, one part love triangle, and one part education of a felon. Entranced by their lifestyle, alarmed by their ramshackle scam, Viva realizes she’ s out of her depth— and that only luck, cunning, and her own hustler’ s instinct can save her from disaster. Careening from the canyons of LA to the canals of Venice, The Lady Waiting is a page-turning caper, a cavalcade of twenty-first-century sins— rapacious capitalism, shameless fraud, and atrocious behavior— and a showcase for three of the biggest and most unforgettable characters in recent fiction.
