Shooting Gallery
An Art
Lovers' Mystery with Annie Kincaid
Hailey
Lind
Signet (Mass Market Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-451-21973-2 (0451219732)
ISBN-13: 978-0-451-21973-2 (9780451219732)
Publication Date: October 2006
List Price: $6.99
Synopsis (from the publisher): Modernism isn't Annie's thing, but even she is surprised to discover that the "sculpture" in a prestigious gallery's grisly new exhibition is an all-too-real corpse—the artist's. Meanwhile, a Chagall painting is stolen from the Brock Museum, and Annie's old friend Bryan is accused of being in on the fix. To track down the missing Chagall, she'll need the dubious assistance of a certain sexy art thief. And if Michael—or whatever his real name may be—isn't distraction enough, Annie's mother shows up in town, acting strangely. Annie's got to solve these mysteries, and fast—because art is long, but life can be very, very short.
Review: Annie
Kincaid continues to balance personal and professional relationships,
faux finishing and art forgeries, and murder and mayhem in Shooting Gallery, the second
mystery in this engaging series by Hailey Lind.
Annie's mother, Beverly, plays a pivotal role in Shooting Gallery. Though there is
no obvious connection to a dead sculptor or to a painting stolen from
the Brock Museum, Beverly's unannounced trip to San Francisco and
subsequent actions are a mystery to Annie. Though relatively minor,
this subplot is often more affecting than the more conspicuous
mysteries in the book.
Lind keeps the pace of Shooting
Gallery brisk, though at times glosses over plot points that
could use a bit more explanation. The minor detail of how the corpse of
Seamus McGraw comes to be hanging in the gallery's garden, for example,
remains unclear. There are light comedic episodes scattered throughout,
but the final act incongruously degenerates into slapstick, saved only
by the touching revelations by Annie's mother.
Lind maintains the practice, first used in Feint of Art, of prefacing
each chapter with delightful quotes from Grandpapa Georges. An example
of these insightful, provocative, and often very amusing comments:
"Salvador Dali is said to have signed tens of thousands of blank pieces
of paper for lithographs he had never seen, much less created. For this
brilliant attempt to evade poverty he has been dubbed a forger of his
own work."
While fans of art-themed mysteries will definitely enjoy Shooting Gallery, with its insider
references to great art, artists, and "restorers", the book should also
appeal to anyone who enjoys an entertaining story.
Special thanks to Hailey Lind for providing an ARC of Shooting Gallery for this review.
Review Copyright © 2006 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Have you read Shooting Gallery? How would you rate it?
Mysteries in this series ...
Feint of Art
Signet (Mass Market Paperback), January 2006
ISBN-10: 0-451-21699-7 (0451216997)
ISBN-13: 0-451-21699-7 (0451216997)
Shooting Gallery
Signet (Mass Market Paperback), October 2006
ISBN-10: 0-451-21973-2 (0451219732)
ISBN-13: 978-0-451-21973-2 (9780451219732)
Brush with Death
Signet (Mass Market Paperback), July 2007
ISBN-10: 0-451-22179-6 (0451221796)
ISBN-13: 978-0-451-22179-7 (9780451221797)
Omnimystery keywords for Shooting Gallery ...
Location(s) referenced: San Francisco, California.
