The Face of the Seal by Jennifer Cumiskey - Book Tour + Giveaway
Publisher: Windchime Press
Date Published: 8/8/2019
*FREE With Kindle Unlimited*
An international high-society crime and mystery with elements of noir fiction, illuminates a part of the dark history seldom revealed.
When Gerel Garnier, Paris’ up-and-coming jewelry designer, is commissioned by Britain’s famous art patron William Blackwell IV to create a replica of the 19th Century Qing Dynasty Empress Seal, she believes that her artist’s dream is finally coming true. Blackwell’s name and fortune could catapult her to the status of crème de la crème in the world of couture art design. Little does she know that the dream job will lure her into a web of treachery, deceit and murder.
When Gerel Garnier, Paris’ up-and-coming jewelry designer, is commissioned by Britain’s famous art patron William Blackwell IV to create a replica of the 19th Century Qing Dynasty Empress Seal, she believes that her artist’s dream is finally coming true. Blackwell’s name and fortune could catapult her to the status of crème de la crème in the world of couture art design. Little does she know that the dream job will lure her into a web of treachery, deceit and murder.
While attending the unveiling of the original Empress Seal at the Forbidden City, Gerel stumbles on a startling secret about her family roots, and she is a woman on a mission ever since. From the Forbidden City back to Paris, she careens from dark secrets to illuminating revelation as the truth of her lineage emerges. An enlightening epiphany hits her: She Gerel Garnier, is the heir of the face of the Empress Seal–a rare gemstone that has witnessed centuries of love, hatred, faith and bloodshed.
Now the face of the seal has fallen unexpectedly into her hands. What is she going to do with the gemstone that seems to be a curse to whoever possesses it yet still hunted by the dark forces of the world?
Excerpt
Chapter
13
Normandy
France, present day
The
small villa perched on a white-chalked cliff a mere few meters away from the
edge which dropped thirty feet down to the sandy beach. The locals called it
Maison Suspendu—the hanging house. Built in the seventeenth century, the stone
and wood structure was a humble two-story box, but the enormous balcony on the
second floor jutted out which rendered the optical illusion of a house
precariously suspended on the edge of a cliff.
The
villa had been in the Garnier family for generations.
Fifteen years ago, Gerel had her last words with her father and then left his
grand apartment in Paris. Since then, Maison Suspendu belonged to her.
Gerel still
remembered that it had been two days before her eighteenth birthday. Her father
had said to her, “What would you like for your birthday? We have to celebrate,
you’ll officially be an adult in two days.”
Except for the
adult part, he’d said the same thing every year around her birthday for the
past nine years since Gerel’s mother had died. And every year, Gerel answered
her father the same way, “I don’t want anything, I want the truth.”
“Not that again,
Gerel. I’ve told you, your maman suffered from depression for a long time. It’s
a chemical imbalance in the brain and we don’t know exactly why it happened.”
“You killed her,
Father. Maman was sad because you abandoned her.”
“How dare you talk
to me like that!” her father flared. “I loved your mother and she had
everything she needed and wanted.”
“I saw you. I saw
you kissing a woman in front of this very apartment building, and she was
certainly not maman,” Gerel had released the words that had been fighting to
come out for years. She wanted them to be as hurtful to her father as possible.
Maybe it had something to do with her being officially an adult in two days.
She wanted her father to do the same: grow up.
“I did no such
thing. And stop yelling, you’ll wake up your brother and Isabell.”
“Isabell is the
woman you had affair with when you were still married to maman.” Gerel bore a
contemptuous stare at her father and retreated to her own room.
When night fell,
her father somehow manned up. He told her the truth, maybe not the whole truth,
but Gerel got the gist. To this day, she’d never been able to forgive her
father.
It turned out that Gerel’s grandfather wasn’t too hot
about Emilee Gardner, the American archeology student his future-neurosurgeon
son, René Garnier, had fallen madly in love
with. “Son, you’re ruining your future, you won’t be happy with that girl,” he
warned after he’d met his future daughter-in-law. Of course, René didn’t heed his old man’s warning.
The love birds went to the family villa in Normandy one weekend and came back
married. Grandfather Garnier was furious. “How are you going to fix people’s
brains when your own is deranged? Are you planning to have kids? How are you
going to do that when your wife’s passion is to run around in no-man’s-land
digging dirt? You’ll be working two jobs for a long time to come, paying the
bills for your wife’s hobby and being a house husband when you are not fixing
people’s brains.”
“But Father, Emilee’s going to be a professor, we’ll work
it out between the two of us,” René had promised himself and his father. He
loved his wife and she loved him, there was nothing they couldn’t overcome.
At first things worked out exactly as René had planned.
He started working at the Clinique de Alma, a private hospital in Paris
specializing in neurosurgery and Emilee continued her studies at Sorbonne. Yes,
she did go for a few digs, but they didn’t prevent her from getting pregnant
when their first anniversary came around.
Then things went south.
First, Gerel’s uncle, her father’s younger brother and a
successful nuclear engineer, died in an accident. He’d never been married and
didn’t leave any children behind. Since Grandfather Garnier only had two sons,
the survival of the Garnier family’s bloodline fell solely on his eldest son
René and his “crude” American daughter-in-law. The old man allowed the ice
between them to thaw, but only temporarily.
“Your first grandchild is going to be a girl,” René soon
reported.
The old man was disappointed but didn’t make a fuss.
“You’ll have more children, will you? For generations the Garnier men have
always amounted to great things. It can’t stop with you, son.”
“What if Emilee and I just have more girls?”
“In that case, you’ll have to get a new wife.”
About the Author
Jennifer Cumiskey was born and grew up in Shanghai, China. She immigrated to the United States in 1986. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in English literature and an MBA in finance. After a career in corporate finance and management consulting, she now writes full-time as an indie author. Her writings often explores the theme of clash of civilizations and illuminates the tenderness of the human heart by shining a light on its darkest corners. She resides with her husband Paul in Vienna, Virginia. She can be reached at www.windchimepress.com
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3 Comments
I am interested in the book because I enjoy books that take place in a historical backdrop.
ReplyDeletethanks for hosting #rabtbooktours
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome!
DeletePlease try not to spam posts with the same comments over and over again. Authors like seeing thoughtful comments about their books, not the same old, "I like the cover" or "sounds good" comments. While that is nice, putting some real thought and effort in is appreciated. Thank you.