Recently hired art museum director Carter Montgomery met "Janae Simmons, attorney-at-law" gazing at a painting during the celebrated opening of their "Women in Art" gallery. Learning that the lovely young lawyer had just arrived back in Kedgewick, Virginia, he seeks her advice regarding a disturbing situation; the museum had been accused of exhibiting stolen art. Two pieces; one on loan from a German gallery, the other owned by the Elliott Museum of Art.
Janae Simmons had been in Kedgewick less than a week and she was already second guessing her decision to return home. An embarrassing litigation error had cost one of her previous clients a considerable sum of money, and the pressures of a large law firm in a big city had combined to convince Janae that she needed a change . . . but this? Reluctantly accepting Carter's request to represent the museum in the event of a lawsuit, the case actually encourages Janae to take her career in a totally different direction. Surprisingly, her research not only unearths some unsettling discoveries about the two paintings in question, but also makes her question parts of her own family history.
BackCover Blurb:
Janae
Simmons left the small town of Kedgewick, Virginia, ten years ago to
pursue her legal career and never looked back--until a professional
mistake leads her to her grandmother's historic carriage house and to
the town where her past threatens to find her. The quiet streets echo
with her grandfather's sterling reputation, one that conflicts with
fresh questions that claw at Janae, launching her on a reluctant journey
to unearth his secrets. When her new job at a local law firm doesn't
live up to expectations, she wonders if coming home was the right
decision.
Carter Montgomery starts his art preservation career
with the only job he can get--director at the Elliott Museum of Art. At
least Kedgewick is a nice enough town to provide him and his nephew with
a safe place to grieve the loss of Carter's sister. But Carter's calm
days disappear when an elderly woman claims two paintings in the
museum's collection were stolen from her family during World War II.
Carter
enlists Janae's help to unravel the legal labyrinth of art ownership,
and the peaceful facade of Kedgewick morphs into a hot bed of secrets.
When an attorney turns up dead and Janae uncovers another painting, what
began as a simple legal issue spirals into a race against time. As the
web of intrigue tightens, the duo must confront a looming question: What
dark truths lie beneath the surface, waiting to be exposed?
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