Deceptions

A Helena Marsh Novel

De: Anna Porter

Narrado por: Anikó Kaszás

A savvy art world thriller with a strong, independent heroine and the follow-up to The Appraisal, finalist for the 2018 Staunch Prize.

Former Budapest cop Attila Feher would really like to see art expert Helena Marsh again, so he arranges a contract for her to determine whether a painting is a copy of a famous Artemisia Gentileschi canvas or the real thing. A simple appraisal becomes a dangerous assignment when usual eastern European gangsters show up and people start dying and the seething corruption that underlies the lost promise of post-Soviet Hungary swirls to the surface. In a race to get to the truth and to outwit her adversaries, Helena and Attila must solve the mystery of the painting’s origins.

Richly atmospheric, set in Strasbourg, Budapest, and Paris, this witty, sophisticated novel will satisfy audiences of political thrillers by Alan Furst and Philip Kerr. Deceptions is a thinking-person’s thriller, a romp to the last satisfying moment.

©2021 Anna Porter (P)2021 ECW Press

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Porter takes readers on an exhilarating ride.” (Publishers Weekly)

Wooden performance, decent story

I enjoyed The Appraisal and came hoping for a deeper exploration of that world and those themes. Although the novel geographically strays from Budapest, the plot line seems to follow a predictable path that readers of the first novel will see coming. The narrator’s performance was often wooden — to the extent that I wondered at times if it was AI! All in all, it’s an okay way to spend a few hours, but I won’t come back for a second listen.