The Violet Hour: An utterly gripping story of love, art, ambition and lies

‘An enthrallingly intricate novel … impressive’
GUARDIAN

‘There’s something of F. Scott Fitzgerald about the way Cahill writes about the very rich’
DAILY MAIL

‘A biting satire of the art world’s glamour, pomp and greed … lucid and evocative’
DAILY TELEGRAPH

‘The real deal … The Violet Hour offers a convincing and compelling portrait of a very rarefied world’
NEW YORK TIMES

‘A highbrow whodunnit, and grippingly so, but it’s much more than that’
PATRICK GALE, author of Mother’s Boy

‘It’s brilliant … the human drama of it is just pitch perfect … Hypnotic’
SEÁN HEWITT, author of All Down Darkness Wide

Thomas Haller has achieved the kind of fame that most artists only dream of: shows in London and New York, paintings sold for a fortune. The vision he presents to the world is one of an untouchable genius at the top of his game. It is also a lie.

Who is the real Thomas Haller? His oldest friend and former dealer, Lorna, might once have known - before Thomas traded their early intimacy for international fame. Between his ruthless new dealer and a property mogul obsessed with his work, the appetite for Thomas and his art is all-consuming.

On the eve of his latest show, the luminaries of the art world gather. But the sudden death of a young man has put everyone on edge, and a chain of events begins that will lead Thomas and Lorna back into the past, to confront who they have become.

A story of deception, power play and longing, The Violet Hour exposes the unsettling underbelly of the art world, asking: who is granted admission to a world that only seems to glitter and who is left outside, their faces pressed to the glass?