The Façade by Sheri Kenney

About the book

As the novel opens, Christine Kelly, recently widowed, struggles to provide for her daughter, Lynsey, and to pay off the debts her husband accumulated shortly before his death. She goes from owning a million dollar home in a plush suburb to sharing a small apartment in the city with her sister who is a struggling actress. She barely makes ends meet working as a secretary in one of Chicago's commodity firms.

Christine becomes disillusioned when she is propositioned by her boss and is compelled to take extreme measures to take control of her life. With the help of her sister, Christine alters her appearance and transforms her mannerisms so she can enter the trading pits at the Chicago Board on an equal basis. As a man!

Trent Nichols also trades under guise. He is an FBI agent assigned to gather evidence of fraudulent trading practices at The Board. Trent agrees to go undercover in Operation Crapshoot in an attempt to escape the pain of a recent divorce. In the course of the investigation he meets a particularly honest young trader named Chris(tine) O'Brien.

Paranoia breaks out among the traders as news of the investigation leaks. Rumors abound as to the identity of the "mole". Trent and Chris(tine) run into several traders after a racquetball game at the esteemed West Bank Club. In order to discuss their suspicions with the reassurance that no one is wired, one of the traders suggests that they strip and discuss it in the steam room. Chris(tine) panics. Wanting to conceal her real identity, she dismisses herself abruptly and subsequently finds herself in ever increasing danger, as she becomes the prime suspect among the other traders.

For reasons the elude him, Trent feels protective of his new friend. Knowing the Chris(tine) O'Brien is not a nark but confused by his friend's strange behavior at the health club, Trent follows Chris(tine) home and is shocked to discover the he, Chris, is a she.

The focus of the FBI sting shifts away from investigating fraudulent trading practices to murder as traders' dead bodies begin to appear. Trent relearns to trust women as he and Christine work together to uncover who is responsible for the corruption and murders. Just when they think they've solved the mystery, the story turns when Christine is forced to save Trent's life from an unlikely suspect, her husband, the man she thought was dead!

Spring comes and with it new beginnings. Christine has managed to not only save the lives of those closest to her, she has purchased a Bed & Breakfast in a resort town on the east side of Lake Michigan. An unexpected guest shows up during a party for her child. It is Trent Nichols. She happily invites him in, knowing that even better days are ahead.

About the author

Sheri Kenney was born in Peoria and grew up in Kewanee, Illinois. This rural community bore the dubious distinction of being named The Hog Capitol of the World.

Upon High School graduation, she married and set out for Texas in search of work. It was a job at a small eatery on the campus of Texas A&M that convinced her to attend college. She enrolled at Southern Illinois University before falling prey to statistics. The youthful union disintegrated just as she discovered she was to have a child.

But, this time she beat the odds. With the help of family and friends, she was able to have the child and put herself through school. She graduated in 1986 with a Bachelor's degree in Paralegal Studies.

After a couple of years of working as a paralegal in Chicago law firms, she became disillusioned with the field so she started an insurance brokerage firm with a long time colleague. She contributed articles to insurance industry publications such as The National Underwriter.

In 1996, after eleven years of single parenthood, she remarried a man that supported her dream of writing. In 1998 she sold her interest in the firm to pursue a career in the field. Before the sale of the company was complete, however, but while creative embers were being fanned, Sheri went to the Board of Trade to present an insurance proposal to a soybean trader. This man took her onto the trading floor where she became enamored of the energy and excitement of life in the trading pits. Finding the Board an interesting setting, the seeds of a plot took root. She interviewed traders who were intimately involved in Operation Sourmash, the sting the FBI initiated in the late eighties. The Façade was the result of that research.

The transportability of the work allows Sheri and her family to spend summers in Chicago and winters in LaQuinta, California.