In this riveting and richly drawn novel from “one of the
master storytellers of historical fiction” (New York
Times bestselling author Beatriz Williams), a talented
young artist flees New York for the South of France after
one of her scandalous drawings reveals a dark secret—and
triggers a terrible tragedy.
In the wake of a dark
and brutal World War, the glitz and glamour of 1925
Manhattan shine like a beacon for the high society set,
desperate to keep their gaze firmly fixed to the future. But
Delphine Duplessi sees more than most. At a time in her
career when she could easily be unknown and penniless, like
so many of her classmates from L’École des Beaux Arts, in
America she has gained notoriety for her stunning “shadow
portraits” that frequently expose her subjects’ most
scandalous secrets. Most nights Delphine doesn’t mind that
her gift has become mere entertainment—a party trick—for the
fashionable crowd.
Then, on a snowy night in
February, in a penthouse high above Fifth Avenue, Delphine’s
mystical talent leads to a tragedy between two brothers.
Devastated and disconsolate, Delphine renounces her gift and
returns to her old life in the south of France where
Picasso, Matisse, and the Fitzgeralds are summering. There,
Delphine is thrust into recapturing the past. First by her
charismatic twin brother and business manager Sebastian who
attempts to cajole her back to work and into co-dependence,
then by the world famous opera singer Emma Calvé, who is
obsessed with the writings of the fourteenth-century
alchemist Nicolas Flamel. And finally by her ex-lover
Mathieu, who is determined to lure her back into his arms,
unaware of the danger that led Delphine to flee Paris for
New York five years before.
Trapped in an ancient
chateau where hidden knowledge lurks in the shadows,
Delphine questions everything and everyone she loves the
most—her art, her magick, her family, and Mathieu—in an
effort to accept them as the gifts they are. Only there can
she shed her fear of loving and living with her eyes wide open.
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