Deception: The Ultimate Betrayal

Jackie White’s Deception is built around Asia McKay, a beautiful, high flying career woman who is thrown into a whirlwind of hurt, betrayal, infidelity, confusion and depression. Her marriage comes to an abrupt end when she discovers that her husband, David, has been having an affair with her friend, Gina, an affair that leads to pregnancy producing twins- Reign and Raven in the long run. Asia and David have to go their separate ways. Moving on with her life, Asia meets a good-looking, randy medical doctor, Zaire, who follows her to Aruba and sneaks into her hotel room, subjecting her to sexual assault that results in pregnancy. On discovering that she is pregnant from Zaire, she becomes downcast and comes up with the idea of falsifying a DNA test in favor of David in order to keep Zaire far away from her and her child. Deception is a compelling novel full of intrigue, irony and suspense that depicts the grim realities of life. The book is not larger than life, I found most of the characters believable to a heart breaking extent. The book’s laudable strength consists in its ability to hold its readers sway from start to finish, paying critical attention to details when describing events, places and people with felicitous phrasing. The omnipresent narrator has a sharp eye for details. While I found the book to be highly entertaining and thrilling there was humor injected at just the right moments to bring a bit of levity to an otherwise suspenseful novel; a moment to relax your shoulders before the next twist. The novel employs the intense use of soliloquies with some characters like Asia, Gina and Zarie thinking aloud in their respective distressing and lonely moments. Conversations leading to overwhelming emotional outbursts are recurrent in the novel. As stated earlier, the author’s literary mastery shines through, describing turns of intricate events with sheer creativity, maturity and ingenuity. The novel explores so many provocative themes in a way that is engaging yet understandable. Themes like betrayal, deception, infidelity, lust and love can be found in any one of our lives, but how Asia deals with these emotional obstacles is what kept me turning pages.