Trick of the Eye [MP3 Audio] [Audio CD]

Jane Stanton Hitchcock (Author), Anna Fields (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2003

Faith Crowell is 39 years old, content in an artist's life that is solitary but not lonely. A specialist in trompe l'oeil - the art of painterly illusion that makes things seem to be what they are not - she is about to learn that illusion is more than a painter's trick: for some it is a way of life. Frances Griffin is a grande dame, a reclusive widow whose fabulous fortune represents the accumulated wealth of generations of American aristocrats. She is one of the country's foremost art collectors, but the commission she is about to offer demands far more than artistic technique. In fact, it will test Faith's very soul. For when Mrs. Griffin proposes that Faith paint the ballroom of her mansion, a room built many years before for her daughter's debutante ball, it is not Faith's talent that she desires, but something else. Jane Stanton Hitchcock has written a stunning novel with modern Gothic overtones set in the fashionable world where privilege and social grace mask a legacy of greed, deception, and murder. Behind the facade of exquisite beauty, behind the kindness with which she is treated, lies a landscape littered with horror and guilt. As the story rushes to a searing climax, Faith will face a shattering clash between her patron's spurious values - and her own hard-won vision of the truth.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A tautly controlled narrative voice and a prose style that transcends genre key the action in this gothic thriller about a successful trompe l'oeil artist commissioned to work at a grand old estate on the North Shore of Long Island.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Wealthy New York society matron and patron of the arts Frances Griffin commissions Faith Crowell, a 39-year-old trompe l'oeil artist, to paint the interior of her ballroom, built 20 years earlier for the debutante cotillion of her now-deceased daughter, Cassandra. During this assignment, Faith learns that Cassandra's murder remains unsolved, and Mrs. Griffin seems to know more about it than she is telling. Intrigued with the mystery and possible cover-up, Faith digs beneath the surface and uncovers the extraordinary, evil truth dividing appearance from reality. First novelist Hitchcock's material borders on the melodramatic, and her plot borders on the unlikely, but her writing commands attention. Recommended for lovers of suspense and Gothic novels.
- Sheila Riley, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks; MP3 edition (August 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786190019
• ISBN-13: 978-0786190010
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,689,100 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Fabulous First Book, January 6, 2000

By 

Karen Bierman Hirsh (Greenwich, CT) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Trick of the Eye (Signet) (Paperback)

Jane Stanton Hitchcock's first mystery Trick of the Eye was a wonderful discovery. Her writing is fresh and descriptive and in the imagination department her cup runeth over.

The plot, while seemly simple, is filled with elegant twists and turns. This is the story about an artist who paint's trompe l'oeils (paintings that are made to look as if they are real - a 3-d image that tricks the idea into believing it exists)and is called upon by a wealthy, eccentric woman to recreate her now deceased daughter's coming out ball upon the walls of the ballroom where the party was held.

She brings her up to her estate and keeps her there while she is working on the piece and entertains her with stories from the past. The artist becomes enmeshed when she discovers she is the spitting image of the woman's dead daughter and tries to discover who killed her.

All in all a wonderfully woven tapestry of characters, writing, plot and images.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A clever slight of hand, July 27, 2001

By 

S. W. Miller "swmworking" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Trick of the Eye (Signet) (Paperback)

I read this book a few years ago and I continue to recommend it as a first rate thriller. The premise, a wealthy woman manipulating an artist for her twisted purposes, is clever and memorable. The characters and the prose are compelling. I only wish there was more work by this talented writer! There are few books I have read that have made such a lasting impression. This is a definite "must read". If you've stumbled across this review, it's a sign, buy this book you won't be disappointed.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Literary "Trick of the Eye", August 18, 2006

By 

maskirovka (Alexandria, Virginia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Trick of the Eye (Paperback)

'Trick of the Eye' is a truly compelling book. It kept me up until 2am on a week night (I overslept and was late for work the next day!) so I could finish it and find out what would happen to its protagonist, Faith Crowell, and what secrets she would discover about her patron Frances Holt Griffin.

I happened to read 'Trick of the Eye' because I recently saw again the movie that was made out of it some years ago. Meg Tilly played the role of Faith and Ellen Burstyn played that of Frances. I've always found Meg Tilly fascinating (a combination of beauty, sexiness, sweetness, and mystery that is all-too-rare in Hollywood these days; the fact that she only made one more film after this before retiring is a great pity).

Anyway, I noticed that the movie was based on a novel, and I decided to read it. I thought that as a guy, I might find it to be too much an example of "chick lit." But it wasn't. It was an engrossing tale of psychological suspense, obsession, and art. It kept me guessing about the outcome to the very end. It is also a much better book than the movie, which benefited greatly from Tilly and Burstyn's performances but suffered from the plot being severely abridged).

'Trick of the Eye' is beautifully written in simple, clear, and evocative prose that sets mood and tone perfectly. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I think Faith is a sympathetic character. I also think that the charges of it not being realistic are specious. Is it unlikely that something like the story might unfold in real life? Yes, but sometimes fact is stranger than fiction (and one can only wonder if the author drew on experiences of her own or those of close friends to create the plot). And the story certainly does not suffer from the clich6s and stale chestnuts that mar most suspense fiction produced these days.

The narrative follows a "twisty" path where the reader is led to believe a succession of different answers to the riddle that Faith tries to unravel: who killed Cassandra Griffin, Frances' daughter, so long ago. Some readers might not like the final twist to the story that comes at the very end of the book, labeling it a cheat. But I did like it, and I think that was because I remembered the title 'Trick of the Eye' (which is the English translation of "trompe 'oeil," a style of painting that deceives the viewer into viewing something as real that is not). So I would say read the book, and remember as you approach the end that 'Trick of the Eye' is a literary version of a trompe l'oeil. Besides, as a reader, you're free to make your own conclusions about what the ending really meant, and I've decided that the final "trick" did not mean that all that preceded it was illusion.