A spiralling obsession. A missing wife. A terrifying secret. Will he find her before it's too late? When Dr Jacob Boyce's wife goes missing, the police put it down to a simple marital dispute. Jacob, however, fears something darker. Following her trail to Spain, he becomes convinced that Ella's disappearance is tied to a mysterious painting whose hidden geometric and numerical riddles he's been obsessively trying to solve for months. Obscure, hallucinogenic clues, and bizarre, larger-than-life characters, guide an increasingly unhinged Jacob through a nightmarish Spanish landscape to an art forger's studio in Madrid, where he comes face-to-face with a centuries-old horror, and the terrifying, mind-bending, truth about his wife.

** Finalist, The People's Book Prize, 2013 ** Painting By Numbers is a DARK, SURREAL THRILLER that follows one man's relentless pursuit into an old truth buried deep within. Day after day, Jacob Boyce - faltering academic and failing husband - visits a 17th century allegorical painting which hangs in a Glasgow art gallery. By using a series of measurements and calculations, he attempts to create a mathematical theory that will decipher the code locked into its canvas. As more of the painting's hidden SECRETS are revealed, and he meets a mysterious young woman, Jacob's life spirals into chaos. The object of his obsession has begun to move.