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Artifice: Read an Excerpt!

A dramatic story of duplicity and resistance, betrayal and loyalty, set against the backdrop of World War II, by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Light in Hidden Places.

Isa de Smit was raised in the vibrant, glittering world of her parents’ small art gallery in Amsterdam, a hub of beauty, creativity, and expression, until the Nazi occupation wiped the color from her city’s palette. The “degenerate” art of the Gallery de Smit is confiscated, the artists in hiding or deported, her best friend, Truus, fled to join the shadowy Dutch resistance. And masterpiece by masterpiece, the Nazis are buying and stealing her country’s heritage, feeding the Third Reich’s ravenous appetite for culture and art.

So when the unpaid taxes threaten her beloved but empty gallery, Isa decides to make the Nazis pay. She sells them a fake—a Rembrandt copy drawn by her talented father—a sale that sets Isa perilously close to the second most hated class of people in Amsterdam: the collaborators. Isa sells her beautiful forgery to none other than Hitler himself, and on the way to the auction, discovers that Truus is part of a resistance ring to smuggle Jewish babies out of Amsterdam.

But Truus cannot save more children without money. A lot of money. And Isa thinks she knows how to get it. One more forgery, a copy of an exquisite Vermeer, and the Nazis will pay for the rescue of the very children they are trying annihilate. To make the sale, though, Isa will need to learn the art of a master forger, before the children can be deported, and before she can be outed as a collaborator. And she finds an unlikely source to help her do it: the young Nazi soldier, a blackmailer and thief of Dutch art, who now says he wants to desert the German army.

Yet, worth is not always seen from the surface, and a fake can be difficult to spot. Both in art, and in people. Based on the true stories of Han Van Meegeren, a master art forger who sold fakes to Hermann Goering, and Johann van Hulst, credited with saving 600 Jewish children from death in Amsterdam, Sharon Cameron weaves a gorgeously evocative thriller, simmering with twists, that looks for the forgotten color of beauty, even in an ugly world.

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Artifice Excerpt by I Read YA

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ABOUT THE BOOK

In 1946, Eva leaves behind the rubble of Berlin for the streets of New York City, stepping from the fiery aftermath of one war into another, far colder one, where power is more important than principles, and lies are more plentiful than the truth. Eva holds the key to a deadly secret: Project Bluebird – a horrific experiment of the concentration camps, capable of tipping the balance of world power. Both the Americans and the Soviets want Bluebird, and it is something that neither should ever be allowed to possess.

But Eva hasn’t come to America for secrets or power. She hasn’t even come for a new life. She has come to America for one thing: justice. And the Nazi that has escaped its net.

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Bluebird Excerpt by I Read YA on Scribd

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Read now! The Dark Unwinding by Sharon Cameron

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Light in Hidden Places comes a delicious and twisty tale, filled with spine-tingling intrigue, juicy romance, and dangerous family secrets.

When a rumor that her uncle is squandering away the family fortune surfaces, Katharine Tulman is sent to his estate to have him committed to an asylum. But instead of a lunatic, Katharine discovers a genius inventor with his own set of childlike rules, who is employing a village of nine hundred people rescued from the workhouses of London.

Katharine becomes torn between protecting her own livelihood and preserving the peculiar community she grows to care for deeply -- a conflict made more complicated by her developing feelings for her uncle's handsome apprentice.

As the mysteries of the estate begin to unravel, it is clear that not only is her uncle's world at stake, but also the state of England as Katharine knows it. With twists and turns at every corner, this extraordinary adventure will captivate readers with its thrills and romance.

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Read now! A Spark Unseen by Sharon Cameron

Sharon Cameron, award-winning author of ROOK and THE DARK UNWINDING, weaves a thrillingly dark mystery brimming with intrigue and romance, in which things are not always what they seem to be.

When Katharine Tulman wakes in the middle of the night and accidentally foils a kidnapping attempt on her uncle, she realizes Stranwyne Keep is no longer safe for Uncle Tully and his genius inventions. She flees to Paris, where she hopes to remain undetected and also find the mysterious and handsome Lane, who is suspected to be dead.But the search for Lane is not easy, and Katharine soon finds herself embroiled in a labyrinth of political intrigue. And with unexpected enemies and allies at every turn, Katharine will have to figure out whom she can trust--if anyone--to protect her uncle from danger once and for all.Filled with deadly twists, whispering romance, and heart-stopping suspense, this sequel to THE DARK UNWINDING whisks readers off on another thrilling adventure.

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Calling all book clubs!: Dive into these thought-provoking questions to guide you through Sharon Cameron’s BLUEBIRD.

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A Story that Feels Real: Bringing History to Life

Guest Post from Sharon Cameron, author of The Light in Hidden Places, on her research for this incredible, powerful book about one of history’s hidden heroes.

All of my books have required a huge amount of historical research––even the sci-fi. History is what makes fantasy feel real, and pulling from reality is just the way I write. But the research for THE LIGHT IN HIDDEN PLACES was by far the most fascinating I’ve ever done, because for the first time I had an in-depth focus on one particular person: Stefania Podgórska Burzminski.

Before I had even decided to write the book, I watched hours of interviews with Stefania, getting a grasp on her life. But it was reaching out to her son, Ed Burzminski, that really opened up Stefania’s world to me. As the child of a Holocaust survivor and a Holocaust rescuer, Ed had incredible memories. He told me stories, shared photos, and even took me to meet his mom. She was in the last year of her life, and so never knew that she met me. But I will never forget meeting her.

And then, three weeks after Stefania passed away, Ed and I went to Poland together, to discover his mother’s life.

Ed and Sharon, Przemysl Archives. Credit Philip Cameron.

We stood in the attic where thirteen Jewish men, women and children had been hidden behind a false wall. We interviewed one of those hidden children, and we interviewed Helena Podgórska, who at six years old was just as much of a hero as her sister. We walked the streets of Przemyśl and searched the city archives, finding where the Diamant family had lived in the ghetto and the site of a German tool factory where Stefania worked. We found the curve in the railroad tracks where Max Diamant jumped from a moving train. We talked to historians and visited the death camps.

These little slivers of experience, even though they were second-hand, didn’t just shape the book. They shaped me.

Przemysl ghetto (Sharon Cameron, Ed Burzminski, and two Polish guides in the former ghetto of Przemsyl). Credit Philip Cameron.

But the deepest insight into Stefania herself came when Ed shared his mother’s unpublished memoir.

Stefania’s personality leapt off the page, and there was so much more to her story than I had realized.

Fight for Thirteen Manuscript (a page of Stefania's memoir). Credit Burzminski Family Archives.

It was the memoir that became the backbone of the book, overlaid with research into the broader history of Przemyśl, including the experiences of other Poles, and the broader history of World War II. I created different timelines based on all these things and then combined them. And because real life doesn’t happen like a novel, I decided where those timelines might need to be adjusted slightly to suit a narrative structure. I decided where within the timeline that my character arcs would rise and fall.

With the detail that came from Ed’s memories, his mother’s memoir, our trip to Poland, and the historical timelines, the story that became THE LIGHT IN HIDDEN PLACES poured onto the page. Hopefully, it’s a story that feels real, because most of it is.

Stefania and Helena Podgorska. Credit Burzminski Family Archives.

Hopefully, it’s a story that makes us feel, so that we, in turn, can never forget what happened to two young, courageous girls in Nazi-occupied Poland, and the thirteen people they swore to protect.

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