Beth Pratt
THE BOOKS
A Portrait of Muder
ISBN-978-0-9920401-0-9
A Portrait of Murder is the first book in the Veronique Berri Murder Mystery series set in Paris France.
Ex-cat burglar, Véronique Berri ruins her dreams of an ordinary life when she decides to pull off one last heist by stealing what she suspects is a fake Édouard Manet portrait from the Musée d’Orsay. When stealing the painting she discovers the corpse of Impressionist curator Colette Laroche positioned and dressed like the model in Manet’s infamous “Olympia”. As the body count piles up and the list of motives and suspects increase, Véronique is compelled to solve the murder. With the theft she’s left a huge red herring and become a possible suspect herself. But when the twists and turns increase and Véronique gets closer and closer to the truth she also gets closer to becoming the next corpse found dressed like a Manet Model.
Murder Painted Blue
ISBN-978-0-9920401-1-6
Véronique Berri’s life is complicated. She’s been trying unsuccessfully to give up her life as a cat burglar. Trying to keep herself occupied, she’s given tours at the Musée d’Orsay and now she’s working on earning her doctorate in art history. But tempting opportunities for theft keep presenting themselves and Véronique is finding it hard not to fall off the wagon. When she’s invited to a re-creation of Yves Klein’s Monotone Symphony at a prominent Paris art gallery, she contemplates stealing one of Klein’s paintings that she saw earlier, but when she’s about to take it, she finds it’s now been switched with a fake. Things go from bad to worse when then the body of art historian Thérèse Durand is found with a rolled painting in her hand, naked and painted International Klein Blue, a color patented by the famed artist. When Véronique sees a man who looks suspiciously like her lover, Andrew McFadden leave the scene of the crime, she wonders what else could possibly go wrong. She soon finds out when this same man follows her home, and she realizes the man is not Andrew who is still missing from her life. As circumstances pull Véronique towards the crime, and as the circles of suspects widen, Véronique fears she could be the next victim found dead, painted blue.
Murder Restored (Coming Soon)
ISBN-
Véronique Berri is intrigued when art restorer and Picasso expert Franck Roux invites her to his villa in the south of France where her neighbour eccentric Mme. Pavel, a friend of Franck’s is already vacationing. Franck needs to talk to Véronique but won’t tell her about what until he sees her in person. Hoping to distract herself and her lover, Andrew McFadden from their current addiction to art and jewel theft, the couple head off with Véronqiue’s Great Dane, Pinkerton in tow. But when they arrive at the villa, they find it locked with no one home. Andrew convinces Véronique that this is the perfect opportunity to hone their breaking and entering skills. But their attempt is thwarted when they find someone has already beaten them to it. The house has been turned upside down. Soon Mme. Pavel and Franck’s niece, the beautiful Anastasie return home with the news that Franck has been murdered. No one seems to know why Franck wanted to see Véronique or what the thieves might have been searching for in Franck’s villa, but something sinister is definitely happening. But when Anastasie catches Andrew’s eye and the handsome Inspecteur Mathieu Dubois shows interest in Véronique she finds herself not only embroiled in a murder investigation with a wide range of dangerous suspects, but in danger of losing Andrew and her own life as well.