Artist Faith Crowell is nearly forty and feels—with some relief, some regret—that she's now safely past the age of passion, obsessive love, and unsatisfied longings. Concentrating on contenting herself with a solitary life in Manhattan, complete with cat, comfy apartment, and a successful if hardly brilliant career, Faith is shocked when grande dame Frances Griffin drops in to her studio to ask her to paint murals for the ballroom of her legendary Long Island mansion. Flattered, Faith accepts. She eventually learns of the brutal, unsolved murder of Frances's daughter and begins to wonder why she was chosen for this project, why her employer seems intent on confiding all her secrets to her, and what, exactly, lies beneath the surface of Frances Griffin's public life.
Comfortable and settled, nearing age 40, artist Faith Crowell takes pleasure in enjoying a quiet, uncomplicated Manhattan lifestyle with her cat as a solitary companion. Of course, that's precisely when her life takes an unexpected new course, leading her to the assignment of a lifetime--painting interior ballroom murals for an extraordinary Long Island mansion. Anna Fields portrays Crowell as savvy and intuitive, traits that will help her when she learns of the unsolved murder a decade earlier of her benefactor's daughter within the mansion. Fields captures all the suspense of the story as Crowell explores the past just a bit too creatively. B.J.P. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine
