Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, has written a review of Brush with Death by Hailey Lind. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.
Brush with Death by Hailey Lind
An Art Lover's Mystery with Annie Kincaid
Signet (Mass Market Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-451-22179-6 (0451221796)
ISBN-13: 978-0-451-22179-7 (9780451221797)
Publication Date: July 2007
List Price: $6.99
Synopsis (from the publisher): Former-forger turned faux-finisher Annie Kincaid hopes that if she can help return an alleged masterpiece to Italy, her sketchy reputation will finally be redeemed. But when a sexy art thief-and murder-enter the picture, Annie realizes that it won't be so easy to put things to rest.
Review: Annie Kinkaid, reformed art forger and now the proprietor of True/Faux Studio, a faux finishing workshop and school in San Francisco, returns in Brush With Death, the third mystery in the Art Lover's series by Hailey Lind.
Annie and her assistant, Mary, are asked to repair and restore murals in the celebrated Bayview Cemetery Columbarium, a mausoleum that holds urns of cremated remains. While taking a break, Annie meets Cindy Tanaka, a college graduate student who is taking detailed pictures in the next crypt as part of her graduate dissertation. Cindy questions the authenticity of a painting hanging in the Chapel, and much to Annie’s consternation, the painting is not what she had been assured it was. When Cindy is later murdered, Annie wonders if her death is connected to the fraudulent painting.
Lind deftly combines her considerable knowledge of art into an intriguing story set in the world of art masters and art forgers, and has created a credible mystery about a painting that had been in Italy for years but somehow is now in the Chapel of the Chimes. As Annie and Mary conduct their investigation, someone locks them in an old crypt. They want to know the location of the original painting and assume Annie knows the answer. An artist/forger from her past shows up unexpectedly and comes to her aid, but not without raising more questions. Is this the work of her beloved grandfather, a master forger himself?
As in the previous books in this entertaining series, Grandpère Georges introduces the chapters with witty and provocative quotes. And the climax of Brush With Death is so remarkable and unexpected, it may need to be read twice to be fully appreciated.
Hailey Lind concludes the book with Annie's Guide to Marbling, and provides a short history of the Chapel of the Chimes that includes information on the painting La Fornarina by Raphael Sanzio.
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Brush With Death and to Hailey Lind for providing an ARC of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2007 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.
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