Beneath by Jeff Phillips

Sarah has not been working on her own paintings. Nor has she been restoring the works of others, despite how she became world famous, years ago, for discovering a lost da Vinci. She tends to get lost in her work. She needs to raise her children. But opportunity knocks when the museum contacts her with a mystery to solve, a painting of unknown provenance that requires an expert hand. It is, she learns, the portrait of a sixteenth-century aristocrat, a woman who was notorious for torturing and murdering young women. As she uncovers the portrait’s layers, Sarah begins to lose touch with reality. Her children report having conversations with the dead. Whether she has tapped into the world of ghosts and spirits, or she is simply losing her mind, Sarah must uncover the painting’s secrets and find her way back to a normal life before what she has uncovered consumes her.