A favorite destination—even for New Yorkers—is the venerable Metropolitan Museum of Art. On this particular day, “the Met,” as generally known, experiences an unusually large number of visitors. Visitors have their choice of viewing over two million works of art spanning five millennia of cultures worldwide. But some among them are up to something more sinister.
At one point, the Met’s surveillance cameras’ lenses capture “a mysterious-looking couple” amid the many visitors strolling about the many galleries. The pair is dripping wet in their matching taupe Burberry trench coats. Just as the two of them walk past Soleil dans le Ciel de Saint-Paul, a masterpiece of Marc Chagall, a large tourist group—who, oddly enough, all are wearing distinctive red-and-white-striped vinyl raincoats—converges around them. But it is what happens next that baffles the museum’s surveillance crew. After “the mysterious-looking couple” pulls off their prank, they and the large tourist group walk out of that particular camera’s range, becoming submerged elsewhere in the interminable galleries of the gigantic museum.
But when a docent notices “something strange” with Chagall’s Soleil dans le Ciel de Saint-Paul, in short order, the museum-goers inside the Chagall gallery hear “High Alert!” and watch in horror as a heavy metal grille drops down from the ceiling to the floor, effectively locking them inside the gallery.
And thus began what later came to be called The Mysterious Affair at the Met.
M. J. Simms-Maddox, PhD, is an independent (“indie”) author and the creator of the Priscilla Series.
The South Carolina native grew up in the Snowbelt of western New York and currently resides in North Carolina.
She earned her doctorate in political science from the Ohio State University, has served as a legislative aide in the Ohio Senate, operated a PR firm, and taught political science for over thirty years, and she travels extensively—all of which plays prominently in the Priscilla Series.
The author found her passion for writing fiction somewhat late in her life and has been writing mostly mysteries and thrillers since 1999.
She is affiliated with the African Literature Association, the Chanticleer Authors’ Conference, the North Carolina Writers’ Network, and the Women’s National Book Association.
Apart from writing novels about professional women with agency, she enjoys all-things-books, traveling, and working in her yard.