Deception: The Sunday Times Bestseller 2022

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All across the USA, people are showing up dead. The deaths don't appear to be connected in any way until one particular death occurs and gets the Secretary of Defense's attention. He arranges for a task force to investigate. But she finds out about that and death too when one of the girls is murdered and she is witness to it. Belle is taken from her home and sold into prostitution in Paris by the killer. Now her entire world is not her own and when she is to go to New Orleans halfway across the planet, she is going to blossom from a young girl into a young woman that is more in control of her fate than ever. This story is cleverly written from Alice’s perspective and as Alice is on her journey of discovery, it switches to that of her mum. There are no massive twists, just a really well thought out plot which is both interesting and compelling.

After the funeral of her mother, Sally, Alice Kent is approached by a man named Angus Tweedy. He claims to be her father and tells her that he served time in prison for marrying Sally bigamously.Sally was very much a closed book but with her new found surprising information Alice is very much determined to open it up. Alice starts to dig into her mother’s past and she throws up some surprising facts that she perhaps wished she had left buried but at the same time a clearer picture of her heritage starts to form for her and along the way she does find some romance. The majority of the book centres around Sally and her deception of which there were many. It begs the question what happens when the person closest to you has led a life of lies and secrets and deceived so many? Written with Pearse's typically engaging and effortless style of storytelling, Deception is an intriguing book of highs, lows, struggles and perseverance' CULTUREFLY

Fleur was probably my favourite character to read about in the story. What a complicated, troubled and yet incredibly strong woman she was. Despite a bad start in life and many obstacles, she seemed to keep going. Some of her decisions were questionable but I found it difficult to judge her for them. She hadn’t had an easy life and even when she did find her peace, I’m sure her past troubled her right until the end. Lesley Pearse (born 24 February 1945) [1] is a British novelist, with global sales of over 10 million copies. [2] [3] She started writing at the age of 35, but was not published until she was 48. [4]It is there that she meets Etienne, a mysterious man who she first met when she was a child. Belle knows that she still loves her husband but never expected to meet the man who played such an important role in her youth here in Europe. As she continues to talk to him, the young woman and former courtesan finds herself torn when it comes to matters of the heart. Belle is set in London in 1910 and is the debut novel in the Belle series by Lesley Pearse. Belle is 15 years old at the time of this novel. As a young girl, she has lived in the Seven Dials in a brothel for all of her life and for most of it had no idea what was really going on in the name of commerce upstairs.

Deception has a seemingly simple plot as Alice tries to find out about her mother’s past, but told through Alice’s modern 2015 perspective interspersed by her mother’s decades of life, there’s a gradual uncovering that draws in the reader and makes them experience the truth in the same way as Alice uncovers it in a very satisfying narrative. This is a heart-wrenching journey as dark secrets are exposed and we understand the decisions Sally was forced to make Candis

Customer reviews

A gritty, gripping drama . . . A raw, truthful and moving account, building intrigue as Alice gradually uncovers her mother's life of deception, lies - and love * Woman's Weekly * She had accepted Sally's many faults, and her reluctance to never speak of the past. But faced with this staggering deception, Alice knows she must uncover the whole truth about her mother. Personally, I found "Deception" to be thoroughly enjoyable. Lesley Pearse’s work is a definite recommendation if you have an affinity for crime and mystery genres. Before starting this book, I didn’t know if I was going to be getting sad vibes, happy vibes or something in between and to be honest, I feel a mix up of all of the emotions after having finished. Following Alice’s journey into her mother’s past felt like I was experiencing all of the surprises along with her. It was certainly a reminder to me that we’re all just humans. We tend to hold our parents to such a high standard when in reality they make mistakes and bad decisions the same as anyone else.

I loathed Sally at the start of Deception, but as she transmogrified into her different personas and Alice found out more about her, I felt I had come to know a real woman. Her life choices may have been forced upon her, unwisely chosen or even criminal, but what Lesley Pearse does so well is to show the reader why Sally behaved as she did so that there’s a reality to her actions and an understanding In the reader.

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Alice talks to Angus and discovers that her mother is not the woman that she thought she was and that her life was all a lie. Because of this she decides to find out the truth about her mother, visiting places of her mother’s past and her old friends to discover the truth. This is a heart-wrenching journey as dark secrets are exposed and we understand the decisions Sally was forced to make * Candis *