In the upper limits of the Potomac River, three upright rocks mark the navigable water. Call the Three Sisters, they embody a legend that any man who traverses those waters and is unfaithful to the woman will perish, while a man attempting to reach his true love will be assisted in crossing.
Miranda Cabot is inclined to believe the first part of that legend because she witnessed her adulturous husband Edward perish in those waters along with his lover, three years before. Now, she continues to live in the family mansion with her two sisters, older Honor and younger Sybil, spoiled as only a the baby in the family can be. When newly-graduated Sibyl decides her current boyfriend is boring and that she’s destined to marry someone from Europe, preferably a cultured Frenchman, her sisters facetiously suggest she advertise for him. To their dismay, she does, posting an ad on Craigs’ List, offering room and board to a French aristocrat in exchange for language lessons, confident it won’t take much for their new boarder to fall in love with her and offer marriage. When the ad is answered by Luc Rever, Chevalier du Bon Arnaque, a supposed Alsatian nobleman, disbelief abounds. To Honor and Miranda’s dismay, Luc arrives, prepared to move in. He’s handsome, he’s indeed French, and definitely cultured, but the sister he has eyes for is…Miranda, and she, in turn, is attracted to him. Pretty soon, much to Miranda’s surprise, she and Luc are carrying on a very clandestine and shockingly passionate affair. But there’s something just not quite right about the handsome Frenchman, among them the fact that he’s in possession of several paintings which look disturbingly like those of the Flemish artist Frans Hals, paintings listed in no known art catalogue. Luc’s being very hush-hush about who and where he got the paintings, saying nothing except that he wishes to sell them. Combining this with mysterious correspondence and his flying back and forth to France, the sisters jump to the conclusion that he’s an international art thief, trying to fence paintings stolen from some French chateau during the German occupation of France.
Enter next door neighbor Dieter and his grandson Corey, an amateur inventor recently expelled from Dartmouth for accidentally blowing up one of the library towers. Corey’s been sweet on Sibyl forever but at the moment, in her new freedom as an “adult,” and with her sights on Luc, she can’t stand him. Corey is also the possessor of a souvenir his German great-grandfather took from a French chateau he and his squad occupied during World War II. When Luc becomes very interested in the souvenir, that, along with his current mysteriousness, only adds to everyone suspicion. Determined to prove the man she’s coming to love isn’t the criminal every one thinks, Miranda takes one of the pictures to an art expert friend, who declares it genuine. Now Miranda has to make some choices…denounce Luc as a thief, and join the others in foiling his attempts to sell the paintings, or break her little sister’s heart by declaring she loves him, and then break her own by letting him get away. Either way, she’s going to lose the man she loves…and Luc will have to test the legend of the Three Sisters to prove himself...
MY OPINION: A very romantic To Catch a Thief. This may be titled an erotic romance, but the eroticism is tempered with a great deal of romance. The dialogue is witty, the descriptions are poetic and lush, and the story is an entertaining and very funny one. Love the characterizations, especially that of Corey who comes across as one of those brilliant youngsters who get into trouble because people don’t understand his genius. Sibyl was another matter, she was characterized as such a spoiled brat in the first chapter--no matter how outrageous she acted or how rude she was, everyone just brushed it off--that I wished someone would hit her. A little not sparing the rod wouldn’t quickly un-spoiled that child!, that child! Still, if it wasn’t for Sibyl’s belief that the world was made for her, the story would have nowhere to go, so she’s a good, if maddening, plot device.
It’s a question of whether the Tryptich are the Three Sisters in the Potomac or the three sisters in the Queen Anne mansion on its banks, but either way, you’ll enjoy this erotic but slightly shimsical tale of art theft, thwarted romance, and two people who dare to face it all.
Tryptich is available from Secret Cravings Publishing, www.secretcravingspublishing.com
This novel was supplied by the author and no remuneration was involved in the writing of this review.
