A Field Guide to Deception

Praise forRed Audrey and the Ropingby Jill Malone:“Luminescent writing. . . . Finely tuned, daring, and perceptive, Malone’s auspicious debut leaves us wanting more.”—Whitney Scott,Booklist“A lyrical, passionate novel about desire, about danger, and about the need for self-forgiveness. A wonderfully impressive writing debut.”—Sarah Waters, author ofTipping the VelvetandThe Night Watch“First-rate writing and characterization.”—Cecelia Martin,Diva“Malone’s nonlinear novel jitterbugs through time and place—the splintered chronology is a rewarding challenge. . . . A dazzling and dramatic debut.”—Richard Labonté, BookMarks/Q SyndicateIn Jill Malone’s second novel,A Field Guide to Deception, nothing is as simple as it appears: community, notions of motherhood, the nature of goodness, nor even compelling love. Revelations are punctured and then revisited with deeper insight, alliances shift, and heroes turn anti-hero—and vice versa.With her aunt’s death Claire Bernard loses her best companion, her livelihood, and her son’s co-parent. Malone’s smart, intriguing writing beguiles the reader into this taut, compelling story of a makeshift family and the reawakening of a past they’d hoped to outrun. Claire’s journey is the unifying tension in this book of layered and shifting alliances.A Field Guide to Deceptionis a serious novel filled with snappy dialogue, quick-moving and funny incidents, compelling characterizations, mysterious plot twists, and an unexpected climax. It is a rich, complex tale for literary readers.Jill Malone’s first novel,Red Audrey and the Roping, won the Bywater Prize for Fiction.About the AuthorJill Malone went to a German kindergarten, grade school in the rural South, middle school in the affluent East, high school and college in Hawaii, and graduate school in the state of Washington. Her first novel, Red Audrey and the Roping won the Bywater Prize for Fiction. Her second novel reflects her interest in mycology. She has a three-year-old son.