Thank you Atria Books, #partner, for the advanced copy of The Gallery Assistant in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Atria Books
Published: October 14, 2025
Summary:
This twisty and sinister thriller follows a New York art gallery assistant reckoning with her past and now trapped in a web of deceit after an up-and-coming painter is murdered—perfect for fans of Katy Hays and Julia Bartz.
November 2001: Chloe Harlow wakes up late, with hazy memories of the party the night before but no recollection of how she got back to her Brooklyn apartment. Ever since the terrifying and catastrophic terrorist attack, it seems she has been on a collision course with destruction.
When she finally arrives at the exclusive Upper East Side art gallery where she works, she is immediately called into her boss’s office. A pair of NYPD detectives greet her, also very curious to know how her evening ended…because the host of the party, a rising painter and the gallery’s newest artist, is dead.
Navigating both the sophisticated high-stakes art world and her personal life in burgeoning Williamsburg, Chloe struggles to piece together a complete picture of that lost night. As she digs deeper, inconsistencies emerge between what she remembers and what people tell her actually happened, and more questions are raised. Everything begins to feel like a conspiracy and maybe it is. Because Chloe is the only one who glimpses the secrets the murdered artist left behind, and the closer she gets to the truth…the more deadly it becomes.
My thoughts:
A slow-burn suspense with an unreliable narrator, this grabbed me from the get-go. Set in NYC, post 9/11, which I definitely didn’t expect, this mystery really kept me on my toes! I love books that are set in the art world and this one really shines a light on ambition and how it is not all glamour and glitz. I also loved how the author addressed how trauma affects everyone differently — and that sometimes we don’t even realize we are suffering from trauma. This book is full of great characters — some likeable and some not so much — making it very easy to become invested.
I loved that while I thought I knew where this one was going, I could never quite put all the pieces together. The drama kept me fully engaged and I appreciated the way Belli handled both 9/11 storyline – I know it can be a trigger for some, but I think she handles it with care and coupling it with the PTSD storyline really shows she gets it.
This was my first time reading this author but it definitely will not be my last!
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