Coming Soon: Deception in Plain Sight, A Novel by Vivienne Diane Neal

Author: Vivienne Diane Neal

Genre: Crime, Hoaxes and Scandal

Release Date: Fall 2014

Synopsis:

What happens when Christine Bailey, a young woman from an affluent family, believes she has met the man of her dreams, only to discover she has been living in a fool’s paradise? The handsome, charming, and cunning Awesome Petté will not only awaken her sexual inhibitions but will draw her into his sinister plot, which will ruin her financially and obliterate her parents’ billion dollar empire that has been in the family for four generations.

Prologue:

Alone in her majestic manor, Christine Petté knew something was wrong when she came home to an empty house and found a beautiful small chest on her husband’s desk. The wooden box, with its intricate handcraft patterns and sparkling gems, reminded her of a piece that one would find at an auction house or in a museum. 

She never questioned her husband’s business affairs, but some strange occurrences got her wondering about him, his business, and his inner circle of friends.

There were bizarre phone calls all hours of the night, secret meetings with individuals she never knew or met and packages delivered to the house by scary looking messengers. Then, someone broke into the house while she and her husband were dining at a restaurant in DUMBO, Brooklyn.

Her husband’s office was the only room ransacked. Furnishings, papers, and DVDs were scattered all over the place, but the intruder, as far as she knew, took nothing. Two thousand dollars in cash, a Cartier watch, and gold coins worth over five thousand dollars were in his top desk drawer, which were all visible to the naked eye. 

“Honey, what were they looking for, and how could they have missed those items, which were in plain sight?” she asked, reaching for her cell phone.

As she was getting ready to dial 911, her husband grabbed the phone out of her hand. “There is no need to call the police. It is Halloween; it was probably some kids playing a practical joke. Instead of adorning the house with raw eggs and toilet paper, they decided to remove the spare key from under the doormat, let themselves in and rummage through my office.  Nothing is missing. There is no need to get the police involved.”

A spare key under the doormat; this is news to me, Christine thought.

Some neighbors did leave their doors unlocked and would place an extra key under the mat or hide it in a flower bin. There were occasional break-ins, but major crimes rarely occurred on the quiet block.

She decided not to pursue the matter.  Her husband’s tone, body language and demeanor made it quite clear. 

Leave well enough alone. Let sleeping dogs lie dead.

The kind of business her husband was into might have been the reason for the break-in.

Maybe the prowler thought there were pieces worth stealing, she told herself.

He owned a shop, which sold second-hand junk. Often he would bring items home to restore before offering them to customers.

Since the Great Depression, the economy was in the pits. At the same time, gentrification was spreading throughout the borough like locusts circling cornfields, and high-end shops and restaurants were replacing mom-pop establishments. If three customers came into her husband’s shop, it was considered a good day.

Why someone would come into a home just to poke around and not steal a timepiece, coins, and cash, all worth over eight thousand dollars, did not make any sense to her.

But if Mrs. Petté thought these events were out of the ordinary, she would soon receive a wake up call that will send her into a hellish tailspin, leaving her asking: How could I have missed the deception my husband was exhibiting in plain sight?

Excerpts and purchase link will be coming soon.

In the meantime, check out her other books at the following links:

Lulu
Smashwords  
Amazon