The Art of Seeing Truth by Jan Murphy is a Toasty Reads Bookish Event pick #mystery #mustread #bookrec #giveaway
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  • N. N. Light
    • Feb 6
    • 3 min read

The Art of Seeing Truth by Jan Murphy is a Toasty Reads Bookish Event pick #mystery #mustread #bookrec #giveaway



Title:  The Art of Seeing Truth

 

Author:  Jan Murphy

 

Genre: Mystery

 

Book Blurb:

 

What’s hidden beneath the brushstrokes of a painting?

 

Moments after Nina, an accomplished watercolorist, receives her dream award, she glimpses a man sprawled unconscious through his open hotel room. Images of her father, found in much the same condition spins Nina’s world out of control.

 

Soon she is a person of interest in the man’s murder. Nina, driven to clear her name, teams with Jack, the only one who believes in her innocence. Unearthing clues together means diving back into her past and all she believes about her father’s role in her devotion to art.

 

The closer Nina gets to discovering the link between her father and the man in the hotel room, the less she trusts herself. The police are connecting the dots.

 

Set in and around the area known as The Galleries, a sprawl of urban kitschy shops and lush gardens,  Nina finds secrets hidden in plain sight. And seeing the truth changes everything.

 

Excerpt:

 

Light dappled the wall. The pattern reminded her of a string of

pearls. Like the painting A Young Woman Standing at a Virginal.

Vermeer had painted the pearls translucent, blending into the wom-

an’s skin. Nina blinked. The pearls disappeared. Rather, morphed

into something else. She rubbed her eyes and blinked again.


She was in a room, she realized, with a chandelier of opulent

crystals casting light onto a wall of . . . books? The bookstore. With a

start, she sat up. “Jack?”

 

He appeared out of nowhere. Maybe he’d been there all along.

“Tea?” He handed her a dainty cup, his fingers too large to grasp the

delicate curve of the handle.

 

Knees to her chest, she took the cup and cradled the warmth.

“How long have I been sleeping?” Everything appeared fuzzy. She

couldn’t quite clear the cobwebs.

 

“You were out, Nina.” He tucked in beside her on the formal

chaise lounge. “You passed out.” Concern hardened his stare as if he

might find a reason for what happened by simply looking at her. “I

considered taking you to the hospital.”

 

She took a long sip. And another. The fog began to lift. She re-

membered the road trip. The newspaper. The gallery. The bartender

with kind eyes. Her senses heightened when she recalled what the

bartender had said: his aunt had worked at the gallery in the eight-

ies. Nina couldn’t remember her name. Then again, she was bad

at names.

 

They were sitting beside a sash window. Outside, a bright sky

begged for a playful walk. Inside, shadows hid between the book-

cases, appearing cavernous, fading into an abyss. The bookstore was

eerily quiet. Something felt off.

 

Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):

 

·       KDP Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1647047897 


·       KDP eBook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CL7MX9WH 








What makes your featured book a must-read?  


Plot twists and turns keep you reading, wanting to know how the story turns out. Unforgettable developed characters, flawed and very human, draw you in showing you a past in a different light in a gradually, clue by clue.


Giveaway –

 

Enter to win a $10 Amazon gift card:

 

 

Open Internationally.


Runs February 6 – February 12, 2024.


Winner will be drawn on February 13, 2024.

 


Author Biography:

 

Jan Murphy, author of The Galleries Series,  was born in Canada and raised in the U.S. From a young age she had an active imagination,  creating stories and dabbling in all forms of  art. Nancy Drew catapulted into her love of mysteries, like puzzles, waiting to be solved. Her debut mystery, The Art of Seeing Truth, melds her two loves: art and mystery. She is currently working of the second book in The Galleries series, The Art of Escape.

 

When she’s not writing she paints. Watercolor is her favorite medium. Which is why her characters find themselves dabbling in the art world and solving murder mysteries.

 

Together with her husband and rambunctious pup, they live in Southern California.

 

Social Media Links:

 

FB: authorjanmurphy

IG: janmurphy_author

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