Susan Steggall
Paperback 2019
At the heart of my third novel, ‘Tis the Doing Not the Deed (Shooting Star Press, 2019), is a question: What if an artist does something – the ‘doing’ – for noble reasons but the ‘deed’ that results causes unfortunate consequences that echo through generations? The novel is set in the Hunter Valley and in Haute-Savoie France, where my present-day characters live – Apolline a headstrong French lawyer, and her mild-mannered Australian husband, Parry, an investigator for an art auction house. The novel follows Apolline and Parry as they sort out the provenance of a series of paintings in a deceased estate. Apolline is under pressure to finalise that estate in which not only are some of the paintings missing but also one of the heirs. After a series of dramatic events the art collection is withdrawn from auction.
While Parry is visiting his seriously ill mother in Australia, Apolline is caught in a dangerous intrigue, leading to an explosive conclusion – in more ways than one. ‘Tis the Doing, Not the Deed combines flawed allegiance, greed and warped ambition in a tale of love and hate, dominance and disobedience.