Review of Deceptive Calm
Posted: 22 Oct 2024, 17:10
[Following is a volunteer review of "Deceptive Calm" by Patricia Skipper.]
Book Review: "Deceptive Calm" by Patricia Skipper
A page turner story about friendship, love, loss, racial identity, prejudice, ultimate betrayal and survival.
This suspense driven book is set against the 1968 backdrop of the civil rights movement in Charleston, South Carolina, and later, the West Coast in San Francisco.
The plot revolves around the central characters of Vanessa Condon and Tricia Bibbs. Vanessa and Tricia are best friends. Vanessa is black but could pass as Caucasian. Tricia is white. Vanessa spends her entire youth in a catholic orphanage run by Sister Rosalie. She meets her first love, the tall and handsome Barry Hale. Together the young couple experience a profound crisis.
At 18 both Vanessa and Tricia set off for college together. A chance detour radically changes Vanessa’s life forever. She discovers a loophole in birth certificate registration, utilises this loophole, by acquiring the birth certificate of a dead white baby and assumes the identity of this white baby, and with this newly minted birth certificate transfers from the South Carolina college she and Tricia are attending, to Berkeley, California. So she now not only has a new identity but also a new white race. This has ramifications down the line of course where the author creates an intriguing and suspenseful tale.
Vanessa later lands the job of her dreams in broadcasting, meets and marries the very rich and handsome Tod Von Westerkamp, heir to one of California’s biggest fortunes.
Her apparently perfect life is dramatically upended however after the serious illness of her first child from this marriage. Events unfold that lead her husband and family to discover Vanessa’s real racial origins setting off a chain of events that threatens her very survival.
The author keeps the pace exciting, balancing moments of romance, drama, tragedy, suspense and swift action. She brilliantly and vividly evokes the atmosphere of Charleston of the late 1960s through the eyes of the colourful, eccentric and humorous character of Sister Rosalie, who in the novel is an avid Charleston history buff.
The author also piques the reader's interest in exploring more about South Carolina, the American Civil War, the Civil Rights Movement, and the tragic events of 1968 in the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy.
In conclusion, Deceptive Calm is a powerful, thought-provoking read set against a historical backdrop that delves into the intricacies of friendship, love, race, abortion, identity theft, inter-racial marriage, betrayal, fight for survival and ultimate fulfilment.
******
Deceptive Calm
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Book Review: "Deceptive Calm" by Patricia Skipper
A page turner story about friendship, love, loss, racial identity, prejudice, ultimate betrayal and survival.
This suspense driven book is set against the 1968 backdrop of the civil rights movement in Charleston, South Carolina, and later, the West Coast in San Francisco.
The plot revolves around the central characters of Vanessa Condon and Tricia Bibbs. Vanessa and Tricia are best friends. Vanessa is black but could pass as Caucasian. Tricia is white. Vanessa spends her entire youth in a catholic orphanage run by Sister Rosalie. She meets her first love, the tall and handsome Barry Hale. Together the young couple experience a profound crisis.
At 18 both Vanessa and Tricia set off for college together. A chance detour radically changes Vanessa’s life forever. She discovers a loophole in birth certificate registration, utilises this loophole, by acquiring the birth certificate of a dead white baby and assumes the identity of this white baby, and with this newly minted birth certificate transfers from the South Carolina college she and Tricia are attending, to Berkeley, California. So she now not only has a new identity but also a new white race. This has ramifications down the line of course where the author creates an intriguing and suspenseful tale.
Vanessa later lands the job of her dreams in broadcasting, meets and marries the very rich and handsome Tod Von Westerkamp, heir to one of California’s biggest fortunes.
Her apparently perfect life is dramatically upended however after the serious illness of her first child from this marriage. Events unfold that lead her husband and family to discover Vanessa’s real racial origins setting off a chain of events that threatens her very survival.
The author keeps the pace exciting, balancing moments of romance, drama, tragedy, suspense and swift action. She brilliantly and vividly evokes the atmosphere of Charleston of the late 1960s through the eyes of the colourful, eccentric and humorous character of Sister Rosalie, who in the novel is an avid Charleston history buff.
The author also piques the reader's interest in exploring more about South Carolina, the American Civil War, the Civil Rights Movement, and the tragic events of 1968 in the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy.
In conclusion, Deceptive Calm is a powerful, thought-provoking read set against a historical backdrop that delves into the intricacies of friendship, love, race, abortion, identity theft, inter-racial marriage, betrayal, fight for survival and ultimate fulfilment.
******
Deceptive Calm
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon