The world Lexi came from was safe, years and miles removed from international intrigue. That all changed when she married into European landed gentry. A Deadly Provenance captures a 1970’s snapshot of an altogether different reality, which forms the backdrop for a fast-moving redirection of Lexi’s exotic, yet ordinary, new life, until unresolved conspiracies from her in-laws’ past surface and burst in to threaten Lexi’s marriage to Jon and their life together. Without heavy historical detail, the Cold War ambiance weaves masterfully in and out of their characters’ lives, in just the right amounts of a cultured and historical accuracy, based on experiences drawn from the author’s life in Upper Bavaria and Lower Austria during that period. Lexi, the transplanted Southern blue blood, must face down compound challenges of culture, language, new love, an accident, in-law drama, and now, espionage. Injected into this mix are shadows from her past, thought long since left behind and of no consequence.
As this mix reaches critical mass, the demure NC Magnolia produces a steely side that amazes herself and puts everyone else off guard. Lexi simply refuses to roll over and play dead, and the reader is quickly sucked into this maelstrom with her.