The Art of Deception

Friendship comes at a cost. For beautiful Mary-Ann Walker, who struggled with the challenges of a difficult family history, that cost proves to be her life. With Mary-Ann's past as its only guideline, the Seattle homicide unit must delve into the relationships between a misguided young woman and her family, friends, and lover.

Seattle Police forensic psychologist Daphne Matthews, who volunteers as a teenage runaway counselor, is haunted by the loss of a suicide, a "jumper," a year earlier. When a woman's body is found beneath the Aurora Bridge, Matthews is one of the first at the scene—and begins a puzzling investigation that becomes entangled with her own past, that of the victim, and even that of Seattle itself.

Mary-Ann's boyfriend has a record of physical abuse, and an attitude that Matthews finds difficult to crack. When the victim's grieving brother surfaces, throwing blame onto the boyfriend and craving revenge, Matthews gains an unstable ally she does not want.

Then the stalking begins: the eerie phone calls, the noises outside the house, the shadows that move in the night. Someone has his eye Matthews—but to stop her, to kill her, or to help her solve the crime?

"No one blends crime fiction and realism like Ridley Pearson. In The Art of Deception, he transports readers into uncharted realms—the eerie, subterranean ghost town that is Seattle's 'Underground'—and the groundbreaking relationship between John LaMoia and Daphne Matthews. A 150-proof thriller." —#1 New York Times –bestselling author Greg Iles