Tainted Visions

Abel Santoro came to Las Vegas because of a great job offer. But, with his career underway, a new home, and a happy family, he is fatally injured in what appears to be an accident. With little chance to grieve over her hus-band’s death, young Dawn Santoro finds herself at risk of poverty-maybe even homelessness- for herself and infant daughter. Her options look dim until an older married man, who happens to have secret knowledge about Abel’s death, offers Dawn a life of wealth and privilege for herself and child-with a mansion of their own to live in-if she would become his mistress. Dawn tries to buy time, but fears the man might retract his offer and that she could fail on her own, thereby depriving her daughter of what might be her only real chance in life. In Tainted Visions, a young woman, whose simple world has been torn apart, must either surrender her dignity and freedom, or face the challenge of a lifetime which will test the limits of her wits and courage.T. J. Tanksley: While helping raise a family in Las Vegas and working full time in the legal field, the author began crafting this intricate novel, which deals with real world survival and evolving female self-reliance, during a mild recession that lasted into the early 1990s-the same time as the novel’s setting. Nobody knew then that real world survival would become such a challenge for so many American men and women as a result of the coming Great Recession and its aftermath. [Photo by Annie Dobb, Photographer]