Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Deceptions | 1982 | Judith Michael | Buy |
| 2 | A Tangled Web | 1994 | Judith Michael | Buy |
Deceptions (1982) is the novel that established Judith Michael’s reputation. It follows two women – one aristocratic and European, one American and middle-class – who meet and decide to swap lives for a summer holiday. The premise allows the authors to explore questions of identity, class, and desire, as each woman discovers unexpected freedoms and complications in the other’s life. The book was a major bestseller and was adapted as a television miniseries.
A Tangled Web (1994), published twelve years later, returns to one of the central characters from Deceptions and places her in a new dramatic situation involving art theft and personal reinvention. It is a longer, more complex novel than its predecessor, and benefits from the reader’s familiarity with the character’s earlier history.
The two books together form a satisfying arc, though they are separated by enough time in publishing history that they each stand reasonably well on their own. Deceptions is the stronger starting point and gives the series its emotional core.