Artistic Easter Eggs: Van Gogh

There's a reason I saved Vincent Van Gogh for my final post on artists featured in Harlequin's Shadow. Unlike the others, he was not mentioned in canon. Instead, all the Easter eggs refer to previous Caffrey Conversation stories.

Role-playing Games

For Neal Caffrey, White Collar's quintessential Peter Pan, the U-boat con must seem like a dream gig. He and Henry are given full license to cavort like reckless and irresponsible pirates. But Neal likes to play fair, and it hasn't escaped his notice that once more Peter's gotten the short end of the stick. As the leader of the team, Peter has to be the responsible one—the designated driver. Wouldn't he rather stow away on the pirate ship?

Artistic Easter Eggs: Degas and Vermeer

In last week's post, I discussed the Easter eggs we've hidden for Raphael and Matisse, but the references to the French Impressionist Edgar Degas and the Dutch master Johannes Vermeer are just as numerous.

Is it a story without conflict?

In school I was taught that conflict was a required element when writing a story. But is it really necessary?

Artistic Easter Eggs: Raphael and Matisse

One of the delights of writing a long series is the greater potential for including references to earlier events. For Harlequin's Shadow, a story that concerns a treasure trove of plundered art, opportunities to plant artistic Easter eggs abound. Two of the largest eggs are for Raphael and Matisse.

Twisted Brothers

Readers have known for a while that the cybercriminal Rolf Mansfeld delights in psychological games. For almost a year he's fixed his sights on Neal and Peter. In Harlequin's Shadow, there are hints about an earlier target.

Sara's Dilemma

In Harlequin's Shadow, Sara laments that Neal has been targeted by a group of black widow spiders. It's bad enough that Python, the head of Ydrus, is a woman, but also lurking in the shadows is Kate. Could she make another play for Neal? Then there's Astrena, a Greek muse with lethal potential. In addition, Sara learns to her dismay that Neal has to pretend to be infatuated with the blonde bombshell Bianka. Black widows are known to eat their mates. This is not a good situation for him or Sara.