Birth Marks

Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling author of The Birth of Venus comes the first novel in the gripping Hannah Wolfe mystery series. Hannah Wolfe, a London based private eye, has worked jobs ranging from department store surveillance to babysitting billionaires. But every once in a while she gets a case that's worthy of the great detective novels she ruefully admires—and at first glance, the latest case doesn't fit that bill. She's asked to find a missing ballet dancer, Carolyn Hamilton. Simple enough—Hannah figures the young dancer just doesn't want to be found. But she is found, and not by Hannah. Her body is fished out of the Thames by the police, stones in her pockets and an eight-month old fetus in her belly. To the police it's a no-brainer case—single pregnant woman can't face her impending responsibilities, writes a suicide note, and takes a leap off a bridge. But Hannah can't shake the suspicion that there's much more to this case than meets the eye. In fact, she's fairly certain that the suicide note the police found in Carolyn's apartment wasn't there when she herself had gone snooping around just hours before the officially established time of death. Hannah's determination to put together the pieces in the puzzle of Carolyn's short life takes her from the dance world of London to the upper echelons of Parisian society in search of the father of Carolyn's unborn child. When his explanation only raises more questions, Hannah finds the young dancer's pregnancy becoming the focus of her suspicions and her own ambivalent feelings about relationships and motherhood.