"Suspense-laden tale"

In California, renowned artist Susa Donavon will paint a canvas in front of an audience. Her work will be auctioned as part of raising money for the Friends of Moreno County. Additionally Susa will appraise any works brought in by patrons of the arts with the money raised also donated to the Friends of Moreno County.

Art buyer and artist Lacey Quinn brings in paintings done by her late grandfather in the 1920s for Susa to evaluate. Susa feels that the works owned by Lacey are from highly regarded plein air artist Lewis Marten. Though she doubts it, Lacey, already interested in the life of her relative, cannot resist researching the darker portrayals of murder, but soon finds evidence that the homicides occurred and that history repeats itself.

Insight into the California art scene adds a taste of reality to a suspense-laden tale. The heroine is a delight as she seeks her place feeling like the outsider in her family especially when compared to her two siblings. The murder mystery is thirty plus years old with frozen tundra trails yet Lacey relatively easily solves them, which takes credibility away from a well written fun story that readers will still value.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted June 10, 2003

Summary

When Lacey Quinn inherits the striking landscapes painted by her late grandfather, she sets out to prove they are as good as anything hanging in museums with California Impressionists today. But the paintings in her possession are more than the works of a talented master, they are anguished voices from the grave...crying murder!

Lacey researches her grandfather's past and is rocked by a strange series of violent events. Someone wants to steal her inheritance and reduce the paintings to unrecognizable ashes in a suspicious blaze.

Ian Lapstrake, a security specialist working for the appraisal house Rareties Unlimited, has taken an interest in Lacey's inheritance...and in her. Their search for answers leads them down a road paved with lies, blood, and a shocking family history. Clues to a series of unexplained murders may be hidden in the brush strokes—clues that have now marked Lacey and Ian for death.