Suspense novel set in SWITZERLAND (Cantons Vaud/Bern)

20th December 2019

The Art of Deception by Louise Mangos, suspense novel set in Switzerland (Cantons Vaud/Bern)

Lucie is in prison and as the book opens it is not evident what her crime has been. She clearly has a son without whom she is whiling away her days.

Go back over the last seven years and the author sets the scene for her imprisonment. As the novel opens, she has decided to quit art school and has set off on her travels through Europe to the Mediterranean but finds herself rather short of money up a mountain in Canton Vaud in Switzerland, just as the ski season is coming to a close. She organises some work and embraces a fling with Matt. But there are early warnings that he is man of moods and that he demonstrates a philandering nature.

However, Lucie is smitten and despite the desperate warnings, she wallows in his attention and seeming commitment, choosing to overlook his apparent infidelities and misdemeanours.

She meets his domineering Russian mother and acquiescent father. The former treats her with imperious curtness. But with their common interest in art, they have at least something over which they can connect.

Pregnancy throws her carefully built house of cards into disarray and gradually it becomes apparent why it is she is in prison.

The author constructs a tightly woven narrative until it comes to the ‘event’ that explains her incarceration. At this point I had to read the storyline several times as I felt I blinked and missed the almost coy description of what happened, which verged almost on a farcical rendering. The narrative then picks up again and there is a scamper to the end.

I did enjoy the story, for the most part it was an engrossing read.

Tina for the TripFiction Team

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