Gypsy Madonna (Simon & Schuster)

What is her secret? A priceless Titian masterpiece. A sumptuous French Chateau with a deadly secret. A Nazi warlord with a thirst for art. A vicious crowd and a sinister priest in a France of patriots and traitors. A small boy and his beautiful French mother. A raffish American with a plaintive voice and an enchanted guitar, who breezes into a Bordeaux village, full of mysteries and magic, and changes their lives forever. Elegant Anouk, a dealer in American antiques, dies leaving the Metropolitan museum an uncatalogued, multimillion dollar painting aby Titian. Her son, Mischa, never even knew she owned it. This mystery sends him on the trail of his own history, back to that French village of his childhood. He expects to uncover the origins of the Gypsy Madonna; he never expects to find himself. Santa Montefiore's storytelling skills are at their peak in her vivid and absorbing sixth novel. Her unique combination of epic romance and dark mystery is here enriched żeby the tension and excitement of occupied France and the land of opportunity that is post-war America.