A savvy art world thriller with a strong, independent heroine. Former Budapest cop Attila Feher would really like to see art expert Helena Marsh again, so he arranges a contract for her to determine whether a painting is a copy of a famous Artemisia Gentileschi canvas or the real thing. A simple appraisal becomes a dangerous assignment when usual eastern European gangsters show up and people start dying and the seething corruption that underlies the lost promise of post-Soviet Hungary swirls to the surface. In a race to get to the truth and to outwit her adversaries, Helena and Attila must solve the mystery of the painting's origins. Richly atmospheric, set in Strasbourg, Budapest, and Paris, this witty, sophisticated novel will satisfy readers of political thrillers by Alan Furst and Philip Kerr. Deceptions is a thinking-person's thriller, a romp to the last satisfying page. Anna Porter's feisty art fraud heroine Helena Marsh returns in Deceptions, chasing down a long-lost Artemisia painting while staying one step ahead of the eastern European mobsters and art thieves who covet it and will do anything, even kill, to make it theirs

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