Fic­tion

Exceed­ing Expectations

  • From the Publisher
April 20, 2012
Exceed­ing Expec­ta­tions is a tale of sus­pense, intrigue, romance and crime. 1961 finds Char­lotte Mor­gan (Char­lie) strug­gling to cope with her father’s sui­cide, in a Palm Beach attorney’s office, learn­ing that her dad, socialite Jack Mor­gan, left no assets. With a BA in art his­to­ry and priv­i­leged upbring­ing, sud­den­ly alone and pen­ni­less, Char­lie is all too aware of her bleak prospects. As she’s exit­ing, a hand­some young His­pan­ic lawyer offers help. With the uncon­scious big­otry of her social set, she attempts to refuse. Inevitably, it’s Raul Francesco who sup­plies the need­ed ego-bol­ster­ing and prac­ti­cal advice that starts Char­lie on her dual jour­ney to finan­cial inde­pen­dence and uncov­er­ing the secrets that drove her father to kill him­self.

In roman­tic pre-WWII Paris, meet Alan Fitz­patrick, (lat­er known as Jack Mor­gan) lack-lus­ter artist and irre­sistible con­man, who falls in love with Nicole, a bewitch­ing, well-to-do Jew­ish girl. When Paris, under Nazi occu­pa­tion, becomes increas­ing­ly treach­er­ous, their plan to escape goes trag­i­cal­ly awry. Only Alan and their daugh­ters make it to the US, along with sev­er­al valu­able paint­ings.

In a fire­works of sur­prise end­ings, Char­lie dis­cov­ers her own unique tal­ent, a dia­bol­i­cal vil­lain, dis­turb­ing truths, and crimes great and small.

 

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