A Fine Imitation

Vera Bellington lives in a penthouse at The Angelus, the most sought-after address on Park Avenue, in 1920s Manhattan. She has beauty, family standing and money. Her days pass in champagne-soaked socializing, and her nights are spent alone in a huge apartment, waiting for a husband who rarely comes home.

Then Emil Hallan, a handsome French painter, arrives to create a mural above the building's underground pool. He moves into The Angelus, keeps his work hidden and sidesteps every question about where he comes from. Vera is drawn to his warmth and passion, yet she cannot stop wondering whether he is who he says he is.

Her suspicion has a source. Vera keeps secrets of her own, and some involve art forgery. Years earlier at Vassar, her talented and daring friend Bea led her to the edge of disaster and social exile. These college years run through the book as flashbacks alongside the affair in Manhattan.

When the truth about Emil's past comes out, Vera must choose between the privileged, proper world she knows and a risky future with the man she loves. This is historical fiction with a romantic thread and a thread of mystery, set among high society, and it moves between two time periods.