House of Lies

Marriage, Murder, and the Art of Deception

Anthony M. Amore

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Art of the Con and The Rembrandt Heist comes the chilling and in-depth story behind the disapperance of Ana Walshe.

On New Year’s Eve, 2022, Ana Walshe, a beautiful and successful young immigrant and mother of three, enjoyed a quiet but happy evening at home with her husband and their closest friend. She went to bed filled with optimism about the year ahead.

She was never seen alive again.

Her husband waited days before reporting her missing from their home in the wealthy suburb of Cohasset, Massachusetts. The case captivated the nation. Within days, suspicion fell on her husband Brian Walshe—a man awaiting sentencing in federal court for selling forged Andy Warhol paintings, and whose life, it turned out, was a lifelong deception.

In House of Lies: Marriage, Murder, and the Art of Deception, best-selling author and art crime expert Anthony Amore traces Walshe's descent from elite con artist to convicted killer, exposing the disturbing narcissistic throughline that connects his art fraud to the murder of his wife. Blending true crime, psychological insight, and investigative rigor, this is the definitive account of a modern-day tragedy.

Through exclusive interviews with police investigators, the state prosecutor, and a former FBI profiler, Amore provides granular details about the investigation that quickly escalated from a missing person case to a homicide investigation despite Ana’s remains never being found.

Anthony Amore is Director of Security and Chief Investigator at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where he is charged with the ongoing efforts to recover thirteen works of art stolen from the museum on March 18, 1990. Additionally, he is the co-author of Stealing Rembrandts (a Wall Street Journal bestseller) and author of The Art of the Con (a New York Times bestseller) and provides analysis on issues related to security and terrorism for the BBC, NBC News, NPR, CNN, FOX, and others. He lives in Boston, MA. Learn more at www.anthonyamore.com.

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Endorsements & Reviews

Praise for Anthony Amore

"Amore illustrates with an irresistible blend of wryness and affection.” The New York Times Book Review

"Anthony Amore’s book gets up close and personal with Myles Connor, a seasoned art thief who was half of the duo that plucked the piece off the museum wall, and delving into the stranger-than-fiction backstory of how and why he ended up at the center of one of the art world’s darkest moments." Town & Country 

“Amore delivers a dramatic and colorful recounting of the 1975 theft of Rembrandt’s Portrait of Elsbeth van Rijn from Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. Amore constructs an impressively detailed play-by-play of the theft, drawing on his own investigations into the thefts of artworks and his access to Connor and Dotoli, both of whom he’d befriended, and sources in law enforcement and the art world. This captivates.” Publishers Weekly

"Engrossing." The Washington Post

"With hard facts and a clear-eyed perspective, this book sets the record straight.” Associated Press

"A must-read for any true crime fan." Howie Carr, New York Times bestselling author of The Brother's Bulger