The Twisted Deception Series - Why the Series

When an Idea Won’t Go Away

Writing stories is something I love doing. In fact, I am always writing stories in my head but often I just do that for fun. If I stopped to write down or explore where all those ideas would go, I’d never get a book written.

As I mentioned in this article, when I wrote The Caspian Wine Series, I had never planned on writing a series. I loved reading a series but knew they were a lot of work. So that series wasn’t planned.

This one is. The Twisted Deception Series came to me a while ago. I truly didn’t want to write it. Now, in fairness, the first series wasn’t planned, so I found it to be a lot of work. I hadn’t kept notes so that I could easily go back and search. So it meant a lot of re-reading my stories.

But, The Twisted Deception Series was one of those stories that kep nagging at me. I was reluctant to write it was because, you guessed it, it was a series. It had to be a series. There was too much to tell in one story. There were too many people.

So I played with it. And played with it. And played with it. Finally, I got the thread of what each book could be about and what would be the back story that carried through them all.

It was exciting to finally have a vision for where I could go with the series and with each story.

What’s the back story

Twisted Deception is a story about eight teenagers and young girls who end up at a foster home back in the 70’s and 80’s. It was a time when many were just learning that they weren’t the only foster family. I know a few people who went through the system back then and it was truly sad. They had very little say. No one listened and they were soon shipped out to the next foster family, or they were forgotten altogether. Not everyone’s experience was like that but the few I know didn’t have it good.

I had kind of forgotten about these young women until I had read some awful stories just recently about kids in the foster system, still falling through the cracks. Living in terrbile situations.

There are some good homes

I also though, knew of one person who finally found a good family and felt like she was home. She didn’t mind that her new family was strict. She was just happy to have someplace secure, where she wasn’t being abused.

I didn’t want to write about the dark side of the foster care system, because there is a lot of good in it. So I wanted it to be a safe home but one where there wasn’t a lot of interaction with the outside world and there wasn’t a lot of affection given.

I read an odd story.

Actually, I read several odd true stories about stolen treasures. Some people have gone to great lengths to acquire these treasures and in some cases, the people who the treasures have been passed down to, have no idea what they have. Or what they are worth. But others do.

As with most of my stories, many real life events collided with my imagination and helped me to create this series.

Women who made it on their own, years ago.

One thing that has always fascinated me, were those women who had the guts to up and leave a marriage back in the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s. It just didn’t happen very often. Most women put up with whatever their situation was.

For The Twisted Deception Series, In this series, Mrs. Shapiro leaves an abusive relationship back in the 60’s. Now the interesting thing about her story is that her husband was a conman and a thief. So when she left him, she stole some of his prized, stolen possessions. But she really didn’t know what to do with them. She’d planned on selling them to make some money but she just couldn’t do it. At least not all of it. Some she did just so she could make a life for herself. Then she decided she wanted to help other young girls to learn to be self-reliant. She started to take in foster girls. Eventually, she had eight of them that she raised.

What are her plans?

By this point though, the jewelry is constantly on her mind. She worries a lot about it. And about her husband finding her. But she worries more about the young girls who have been through a tough situation and then a tough system for kids.

So she teaches them about the flaws of money. Of jewelry. Of how it can poison the soul. Her intent is to teach them not to covet things like that. She teaches them to make everything themselves. And she severely restricts their interaction with the world, outside of her farm. They work hard, sunup to sundown. Rarely seeing another person.

In her mind, Mrs. Stephanos is giving them the tools to survive. Her goal is that each of the girls will live with her forever.

But each girl has a different idea. They start to leave one by one.

Five Books

There are five books in this series. Each book will contain the story of one of these foster girls, who are now 30 to 40 years older. Their story will be meshed with the backstory that carries on between the books and the main story. The main story of each book will be of woman of today who is somehow connected to one of those women. The woman’s story of today will get tangled with that of the woman from the Foster House.

The books should be read in order as the story running in the background won’t be solved until book 5.

Fostered Identity is Book One in The Twisted Deception Series

Her teenage sister has run away. It’s her fault. And on her watch.

Shyla thought she was doing the right thing in helping her younger sister get a little freedom but she never expected she’d bolt on her. Desperate to keep their mom from discovering she has a missing daughter, Shyla sets out to find her sister.

A fluke encounter gives Shyla a clue. Only she gets a lot more than she bargained for. Not only does she find her sister but she finds herself pulled into doing an impossible heist. And not just any heist but that of stealing her mom’s million dollar jewelry. Ones that recently arrived, with no explanation.

Damien will do whatever he has to protect his brother but when his brother ends up in the hospital, Damien will stop at nothing to take down their father, the man who destroyed their lives. And continues to try to do so. Damien will break all of his promises and will even steal, if it will take down his father.

Shyla and Damien find themselves thrown together, not trusting each other but not having any choice. They will have to work together, if Damien is going to stop his father for once and for all, and if Shyla is going to protect her mother’s jewelry.

An impossible crime that will bring them surprises they didn’t see coming.

Emerald grew up in a foster family. It wasn’t an ordinary foster family. She was the first of eight girls to move in. The jewels that she was given to play with as a teenager, that she was told were baubles, are now resurfacing thirty-five years later. They are worth millions. And it appears worth stealing.

Learn More

Multi-Award winning author, Maggie Thom. Author of The Caspian Wine Series – Captured Lies (Book of the Month - LAS Reviews and Reader's Favorite Finalist), Deceitful Truths and Split Seconds (Award Winning) – and her other published novels, Tainted Waters (Suspense and Thriller Book of the Year through Turning the Pages Magazine), Deadly Ties, Fractured Lines and her new series - The Twisted Deception Series. Click here to learn more.

And her Free eBook - Blurred Lines.

Her motto: Read to escape… Escape to read…

"Maggie Thom writes a fast paced thriller laced with romance that keeps the reader interested and on edge!" InDtale Magazine