Deceptive Calm -- Patricia Skipper

<p>"Deceptive Calm" begins against the turbulent backdrop of 1968. Two American legends, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, are felled by assassins. In the South, it was a tough time to be black. </p><p><br></p><p>A stunning light-skinned beauty, Vanessa, lives in a Catholic orphanage for Black children in the Jim Crow South.. Her personal traumas include a Ku Klux Klan attack, the death of the nun who reared her, and a back-alley abortion which lead Vanessa to change her race. Obtaining the birth certi&#64257;cate of a dead white baby, she assumes the child's identity to begin her new life. </p><p><br></p><p>Starting out as a college intern, she works her way up the newsroom ranks to become the &#64257;rst female co-anchor of the evening newscast. Her mesmerizing and glamorous on-air personality moves the station to the top of the Nielsen ratings. Later, she marries into a wealthy and powerful family. Her charmed life abruptly ends when her &#64257;rst child is hospitalized and diagnosed with sickle cell anemia. </p><p>Discovering his wife and toddler son are Black, her husband plots their murders. The police investigation seems clear cut, until a curious, young detective uncovers clues to Vanessa's childhood. As he launches into her past, nothing is as it appears. The detective gets thrown o&#64256; the case but still manages to unearth her prior life. The aftermath of the discovery brings down one of the pillars of San Francisco society, the ruthless Von Westerkamp fa