Charlotte author Stephen P. Kiernan’s sixth and latest novel, Pollock’s Last Lover, out on May 19, is a tale of two obsessed women: Ruth, a former model who claims to have been artist Jackson Pollock’s mistress and muse just before he died, and Gwen, an ambitious young associate at a New York City auction house. Their paths collide when Ruth, now in her eighties and sporting perhaps one too many bangles, shows up unannounced at Gwen’s boss’ house carrying a garbage bag. Inside is a painting she insists was Pollock’s last. She wants the auction house to sell the work, with the bidding starting at $50 million. Gwen, assigned the potentially career-making task of verifying the painting’s authenticity, finds herself caught up in cutthroat competition and art-world egos.
Like Kiernan’s previous three novels — The Glass Château (2023), Universe of Two (2020) and The Baker’s Secret (2017) — Pollock’s Last Lover is a period piece, one that spans two epochs: in this case, the bohemian salad days of downtown New York City in the 1950s and the striving, Sotheby’s-adjacent uptown milieu of the early 2000s. The author alternates between the two, inviting us to see the parallels between Ruth’s quest for meaning and purpose in the days of bullet bras, creepy men and crème de menthe cocktails, and Gwen’s at the dawn of the modern girlboss era.
In this portrait of female empowerment, tortured male genius is still the real protagonist — not just because of gender politics but because these characters suffer from want of psychological complexity. But this page-turner, a beach read par excellence, also offers a sexy immersion into two bygone eras; you will find, for example, thighs that could “pull a plow” and shirts that “pour off” women’s shoulders. Think “Bridgerton,” but for the “artsy” set. ➆
This article appears in May 13 • 2026.
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