THE LEGACY by Kirsten Tranter
 
 
The electronic manuscript can be viewed through the following link: http://web.wma.com/openpackages/o.aspx?P=83B0179F143310. 


Praise:

Kirsten Tranter, Atria, $15 paper (432p) ISBN 978-1-4391-7718-1 This hypnotic debut from Australian author Tranter pays homage to Henry James's A Portrait of a Lady while offering a suspenseful story line worthy of Patricia Highsmith. Gorgeous, wealthy Australian Ingrid Holburne takes a break from her college studies to attend the Venice Biennale, where she meets much older art dealer Gil Grey, who manages the career of his artist daughter, Fleur, 13 and a child prodigy. After a whirlwind courtship, Ingrid marries Gil, to the dismay of Ingrid's close half-cousin, Ralph, and their mutual friend, Julia Alpers. When Ingrid apparently perishes in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, Ralph, still grieving almost a year after September 11, asks Julia to go to New York to learn more about what happened. What Julia uncovers is a rat's nest of clues that slowly and seductively drive the action to a shocking conclusion. While Tranter's sedate pacing avoids typical thriller antics and conventional crime plot twists, she raises some wickedly keen questions about art world wheeling and dealing.
- Publisher’s Weekly


Australian author Tranter makes her splendid debut with this novel about friendship, love, abuse and deceit.
Julia is part of a triangle that includes the man she adores, Ralph, and the beautiful, blond, ephemeral Ingrid. When Ingrid disappears in New York City, an apparent victim of the World Trade Center attacks, Ralph, who is ill and cannot travel, asks Julia to make the trip for him. He wants to know what happened to Ingrid, who was living in the city, studying at Columbia and married to Gil, a dark sort with a brilliant child named Fleur. Julia departs Australia for New York to begin her search for Ingrid with conflicting emotions. She soon discovers Gil had been physically abusing Ingrid, who at the same time was cherished by the moody, artistic Fleur. As Julia struggles to piece together Ingrid’s life abroad, her dearest relative, an aunt, becomes ill, forcing her to return home and confront her distant and slightly ditzy mother. Julia will return to the Big Apple, but tracing Ingrid will prove to be more difficult than she anticipated. As she finds pieces of the puzzle that comprised Ingrid’s life in New York, the truth becomes complicated. Tranter’s writing is as rich and luxurious as heavy, expensive brocade. The characters’ names and many aspects of the plot will remind readers of Henry James’ Portrait of a Lady. The story can at times be slow-moving and self-consciously literary, but it’s a goldmine of literary references, and finding them can be both fun and challenging.
A promising beginning to what will undoubtedly be a successful writing career.
- A star is assigned to books of unusual merit, determined by the editors of Kirkus Reviews.