Title: Portrait of Deceit
Subtitle: A Kira Logan Mystery
Author: J. C. Andrew
Publisher: Westwood Books Publishing, LLC
ISBN: 978-1648032974
Pages: 270
Genre: Fiction / Crime / Mystery
Reviewed by: Jake Bishop
Pacific Book Review
Phoenix, Arizona is the setting for this contemporary chronicle of secrets, sadistic behavior, and revenge. Outside the walls of their home, one family gives off a vibe of typical American domesticity, but inside something very different is going on. Something unchallenged, which ultimately leads to violence and death.
Kira is an artist who frequently works in different mediums. When her exercise mate, Bonnie, learns that portraiture is part of Kira’s portfolio, she asks the artist for a painting to adorn her and her husband’s home. As the project is getting underway, one painting quickly turns into four when it’s additionally requested that Kira paint a portrait not only of Bonnie, but also one of her spouse, Carlton, plus one each of his business partner, Frank, and his wife, Patricia. It’s actually the second family portraits that begin to form the spine of the novel’s plot.
Readers soon find out that Frank, in addition to being a savvy, yet somewhat morally-challenged businessman, is also a veritable ogre to his wife and family. While Kira works on Frank’s portrait, author J. C. Andrew paints a verbal picture of a brutal tyrant who abuses his wife, son, and daughter, both physically and emotionally. As his victims’ ability to cope is stretched to the maximum, information regarding Frank’s heinous behavior starts to leak. Then a murder is committed that sends everything into a tailspin.
There is definitely no shortage of suspects. From a long-suffering wife, to a brow-beaten teenager, to a potentially spurned paramour, to a family friend who may have wanted more than just to help. The police are quickly on the case and Kira finds herself in the middle of their investigation, although the artist soon formulates her own ideas about who the real killer might be.
Andrew manages to combine the intricacies of her fiction with a plethora of facts about the details involved in portrait painting. As readers uncover more and more about the dreadful doings of Frank, they are also made privy to numerous insights about the multiple decisions that artists take on when they seek to portray the spirit as well as the likeness of an individual on canvas. The novel makes for a bit of an art tutorial as well as a fast-paced page-turner.
Portrait of Deceit is one in a series of Kira Logan mysteries that have different aspects of art intertwining with nefarious deeds and murder most foul. She keeps her stories swift, her language accessible, and her locations wide-ranging. Readers who like their mysteries more than cozy but less than crude will likely find Kira’s adventures particularly engaging.
