Beautiful Lies

By: Clare Clark

Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon

London 1887. For Maribel Campbell Lowe, the beautiful bohemian wife of a maverick politician, it is the year to make something of herself. A self-proclaimed Chilean heiress educated in Paris, she is torn between poetry and the new art of photography. But it is soon plain that Maribel's choices are not so simple. As her husband's career hangs by a thread, her real past, and the family she abandoned, come back to haunt them both.

When the notorious newspaper editor Alfred Webster begins to take an uncommon interest in Maribel, she fears he will not only destroy Edward's career but both of their reputations.

©2012 Clare Clark (P)2012 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Critic reviews

"...[A] grand adventure, and Clark's novel is so richly textured and detailed that the reader might rightly wish that she return to her former profession as a historian - for a rousing social history of the Victorian era, written to these standards, would be a welcome thing... Long, intricate and very well-realized: a page turner for the smart set." ( Kirkus Reviews)

Plot is rather plodding

Any additional comments?

Wanted to like this book but could not finish. Nice historical detail but rather tedious story. I'll go back to my guilty pleasure of Anne Perry instead.

Wry humor; excellent story

This is a compelling, engaging story, an evolving depiction of a 19th century woman's hidden identity. Clare Clark is not yet well known in the U.S., but her writing and her character development are excellent. I have read every one of her books, and this one is no disappointment.

One piece of advice: I had to listen to the first chapter a few times to remember the names of many children in that section. I found it was not necessary. The kids are peripheral and the narrative quickly focuses on a small set of adult characters.