Author event with Brandi Lynn Ryder

Local author Brandi Lynn Ryder will be in the store signing copies of her new book IN MALICE, QUITE CLOSE .

About the book:

When Tristan Mourault—expatriate aesthete, and heir to a world-renowned collection of Impressionist masterpieces—catches sight of young Karen Miller during a trip to San Francisco, he knows he must have her. Convincing himself that she deserves more than the frayed, middle-brow life she was born into, he ...sets in motion a calculated campaign of enchantment and romance that sweeps Karen off her feet. First, he stages her disappearance. Then, her transformation. Karen, the ordinary fifteen-year-old girl, becomes Gisèle— Tristan's daughter by day, his lover by night, and the crowning achievement of his lifelong quest for beauty and perfection.

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Fifteen years later, Devon, Washington. Framed by glacial lakes and snow-capped mountains, Devon is a picturesque bohemia with a prospering art scene. Tristan and Gisèle are the center of this elite, eccentric, and capricious world, and Gisèle herself has matured into a sophisticated young woman. The desired object of many admirers, she is also now a devoted mother to her daughter Nicola and a distant wife to Luke, the man she married to keep up appearances. But the secrets that hold their life together are as ornate as the town's legendary architecture. When Nicola uncovers a cache of unsigned nude portraits—all of Gisèle —Tristan's carefully curated world erupts, and tragedy unfolds.

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An exploration into the origins of obsession and the beguiling power of art, In Malice, Quite Close tells a story of perilous greed and manipulation, drawing readers into a byzantine drama that keeps its darkest secrets until the very last page.

About the author:

Brandi Lynn Ryder was born in a small town in California's Gold Country and raised on a steady diet of stories, from the local lore to Dickens and Poe. She began writing at a prodigious age, completing her first story at four and writing a novel at the age of nine: a mystery à la the Hardy Boys, called Treasure under the Nile (typed on her mother’s Smith-Corona and bound in cardboard and construction paper). Her adult writing is influenced by her many passions: art, philosophy, travel, literature, classic movies and all things European. She graduated summa cum laude from San Jose State University, with Honors in English, and currently lives in Yountville where she draws inspiration from the stunning landscape, gourmet cuisine, the local beverage and her beloved cat, Murphy.