When journalist Jack Charbonnet meets Rhys Goudeau, a beautiful art restorer, he is soon caught up in intrigue more fascinating than any news story. She is determined to find a lost painting by the great, controversial Southern artist Levette Asmore, who killed himself soon after being forced to whitewash a scandalous masterpiece. As they try to keep ahead of unscrupulous collectors who are on the same trail, Jack and Rhys are drawn ever more deeply into the racially troubled history of pre-WWII New Orleans, and into the secret histories of friends and family.
A piquantly atmospheric story of race, romance and art, Restoration is provocative, suspenseful and altogether entertaining.
"Deftly mixes history, mystery and a little romance with serious questions of race and identity. . . . Entertaining . . . . Provocative and illuminating." --The Philadelphia Inquirer
Compelling, complex characters doing interesting things while working through important emotional and philosophical issues—this is the stuff of genuine literature. . . . The narrative flows rich and smooth as chicory coffee at a Vieux Carre café.” --Booklist
“[M]asterfully ties together fact and fiction, imagined artists and real, to create an understanding of Southern art in the 1930s and 1940s, and the society that art reflects.” --Richmond Times-Dispatch
“Mr. Bradley brings clarity and a measured lyricism to the writing of fiction.” --The New York Times Book Review
