The author

Vera Maddox

I write about dangerous men, clever women, and the contracts — written and otherwise — that bind them.

The Vienna Vows started with a question about authentication. If your whole profession is telling a true thing from a good copy, what happens when you turn that eye on your own marriage and get a null result?

Four books later the answer involves an icon restorer, a Bratva pakhan who has never once lied to his wife, a forged sixteenth-century Mother of God, and an Orthodox crowning in June. The research went further into gilding, red bole and the Paschal calendar than anyone reasonably needed it to.

The series is finished. All four books are on this site, complete, free, and without a signup wall — because I would rather be read than sold.

Elsewhere

• Instagram — covers, teasers, and the occasional research rabbit hole.
• author@veramaddox.com — reader mail is genuinely welcome.
• The list — one short email when there is something new to read.