Delusional Traits — David George Clarke

With the right DNA, you could be free from disease, free from ageing.
You could even, perhaps, live forever.
John Andrews has the right DNA ... and so did his daughter, Paola.

In 2012, art-forgery-expert Ced Fisher is contacted by a woman from Boston wanting him to compare paintings by two female artists -- one modern and one from the 19th century. When Ced discovers that the paintings are by the same artist, he immediately thinks of his 600-year-old artist friend John Andrews and his incredible history. Could the artist be John's long-lost daughter, Paola Santini, born centuries ago in Naples? And if so, who is the woman in Boston?


Further enquiries reveal that the modern artist, Annie Carr, was a delusional murderer incarcerated in a state psychiatric institution in Colorado in 1970, and worse, she is now long dead. But was she delusional or was the psychiatrist who diagnosed her misled? And how accurate are the reports of her death?


The second book in the Rare Traits Trilogy continues the tale of 15th-century artist John Andrews and those who share his extraordinary longevity. Centred around the daughter John has never met, Delusional Traits is the story of a woman whose character was honed by adversity, her life a constant fight for survival in a world that will never understand her.