Portrait of Deception

by Janette McCarthy Louard

Thirty-something multi-millionaire Sam Trahan has accomplished more than most men. But his most important goal remains - to fulfil his grandmother's last wish that he recover a stolen family heirloom, a painting called The Black Madonna. The mesmerisingly beautiful work is priceless, but its sentimental value is far greater. Sam enlists the thief's former fiancee, the only person Sam believes can track him down. Little does he know that in doing so,...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0758209029
• ISBN13: 9780758209023
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corporation
• Length: 297 Pages
• Weight: 0.32 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

action-packed thriller

His grandmother Ma Louise is dying, but asks one final request of Sam Trahan to recover the stolen family heirloom, The Black Madonna worth 3 million, its' importance being that it was painted by an ancestor. Milton Alexander working for Trahan's firm stole the painting, but private investigators have failed to come up with his whereabouts. Unhappy with their results, Sam decides to take charge by visiting the thief's former girl friend Zora Redwood in Brooklyn. Sam believes that Zora helped Milton with the theft. Believing she knows where the rogue is hiding he blackmails her into helping him in his quest to get to Milton by threatening to bring her to the police as an accessory as she has proof she had the painting in her apartment. Though she joins him on his quest heading to the Caribbean island of Jamaica, neither trusts the other. However, as they work together to find Milton and the masterpiece, Zora and Sam fall in love, but although danger mounts as their lives are in peril from Milton and his allies, distrust between the duo remains high. PORTRAIT OF DECEPTION is an action-packed thriller. Once the lead couple journeys to Jamaica it never slows down until the final confrontation occurs. The romance between the reluctant partners seems more an afterthought as the fine amateur sleuth chase takes center stage. Zora and Sam are a delightful distrusting lead protagonists whose love revelations seems off kilter while Milton is superbly developed as he proves over the course of the solid tale to be quite a tough villain. More for thriller fans, Janette McCarthy Louard furbishes a fine novel. Harriet Klausner