The Girl In The Portrait

The Hellenic Collection #1

by Dougie McHale

A sweeping story of long-buried secrets that will stay with you forever.Mark has a past he is struggling to forget. Abriana has a past she needs to confront, at all costs. Together, they have a history - a devastating love affair.When Abriana unexpectedly contacts Mark to help her find the original owner of a hundred-year-old portrait they are brought together again by its hidden past and intrigue. Travelling to the Greek island of Zakynthos, they find Pavlos, a man who will change both their lives. As the only living connection to the portrait, he begins to unravel its extraordinary story from 1900s London to evocative Tuscany during the Second World War.Who is the beautiful woman in the portrait and will she give up her secret?As Mark slowly discovers, his union with Abriana is haunted by irreversible events from the past as he finds himself caught up in a world of betrayal and deception, of mystery and thievery and love and loss. As a chain of events is set in motion that threatens to make their past and present collide, Mark discovers the portrait’s secret is about to play out its final episode, a secret that has the power to change everything

Genres: Romance

357 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 9, 2018

About the author

In a past life, I’ve been a dockyard worker, student, musician, and song writer. Writing has always been in my blood and bone, from my musical days of writing lyrics and now my novels.

My books encapsulate themes such as love, loss, hope, coming of age and the uncovering of secrets. They are character-driven stories set against the backdrop of Edinburgh and Greece.

I never intended to, but seemingly, I write women’s contemporary fiction and since 95% of my readers are women, I suppose that’s a good fit.

I identify with a physical place and the feeling of belonging; both are prominent in my writing.

I want my novels to have a sense of time and place, drawing the reader into the social and cultural complexities of the characters. I want my characters to speak from the page, where the reader can identify with them, their hopes, fears, conflicts, loves and emotions. I hope the characters become like real people, where the reader wants to know what is going to happen to the characters, where is their life taking them in the story.

The common denominator is, I want my novels to be about what it means to be human through our relationship with our world, our environment and with each other. Most of all, I want them to be good stories that the reader can connect with and enjoy.

Visit me at my website and sign up for the occasional update about new releases and book promotions. www.dougiemchale.com

Like me at Dougie @facebook.com/www.dougiemchale

Reviews

[Emma Murphy-keen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gets better

This took a while to get into; in fact on more than one occasion I thought about giving up, but I am not a quitter and I am glad! After the first 50 or so pages the book picked up pace, telling the story of a musical quartet touring Greece, running alongside the modern day story of Mark and Arianna who are trying to find out the history of a painting featuring the quartet.I
A good read in the end...think I would have given it five if i was actually in Greece when reading!

[Toni Simpson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating Story

I really enjoyed reading this story about The Girl In The Portrait and the story behind the same. Very interesting and intriguing. The description of the places in Greece and foods really fleshed out this story and made one feel like they were there.

[Andrea Mandry · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bit of a struggle

I found it hard going, didn’t grab my attention at all. Very disjointed and rambling. Did not manage to read to the end.

[Valerie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was surprised by the number of grammatical errors and wondered if this book had been properly proof read. A good story not especially well written but I was compelled to read to the end.

[Kate McIlroy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed the love stories. Very well written sometimes a bit too flowery for my taste. Loved the location Zakynthos as a fellow grecophile can't get enough of the Greek Islands. Feel you are there in some of the passages. Keep up the good work.