Shooting Gallery: An Art Lover's Mystery

If you haven't met Annie Kincaid, owner of a faux-finishing business, and heroine of Feint of Art and Shooting Gallery, you're in for a treat. She and her friends are just as zany as Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum, but Annie's smarter, with just as many sexy male friends, and no cars blowing up.

Shooting Gallery is a fun caper novel in which Annie desperately tries to run a normal business, but continues to have problems with her friends and family. Why is Annie the one person at a gallery opening that spots the body hanging from a tree? Why is Annie's friend on a tour of a museum when a painting is stolen? Why does her mother suddenly show up after a sculptor is murdered? Why can't Annie decide between the handsome art thief and the gorgeous, trustworthy landlord?

Think the fun and sexual tension of Foul Play or Moonlighting. Think Janet Evanovich without the exploding cars. Think wild car chases and dirty dealings in the art world, and you have Shooting Gallery.

This may even be better than Feint of Art, the first in this series. The lead character, Annie Kincaid, is smart, funny, irreverent, balanced, and believable. These authors do a great job creating three dimensional characters and then putting them in implausible situations, justified by Annie's past (and her grandfather's present) in the underworld of masterpiece-level art. It's a blast to read, with just enough real art knowledge so that you're learning between the laughs, which are plentiful.

I love Annie Kincaid! The characters are engaging and the plot is fast-moving.

A great, fun read. This book is a good mystery, with a hint of romance, and plenty of humor. I laughed so hard at one of the final scenes that I cried.

I'm a fan of similar authors including Janet Evanovich - if you enjoy her books, I think you'll really like Hailey Lind!

Juliet Blackwell (writing as Hailey Lind) is one great read. Every book she has put out in this series was highly enjoyable. I read them so fast, they ran out at the end and I am left with putting her name on my Wish List for whenever the next one is provided. She writes with a style of language, humor, and ... well, amost -- ALMOST -- like she is reading to you, because after a few pages or so, you can 'almost' hear her meaning, her intent, her wonderful way with the words we have grown up loving to hear. The intelligence of this author's intent and output is very impressive. At least it impressed me to more than highly recommend her. If you are too busy to read something just 'so-so' try this author. Lil Tiger

This is the second book and better than the first. I love Annie and the wacky characters that live in her world. The scene of the stake out in the hallway is laugh out loud funny. Of course, a handsome, charming, art thief ramps up the intensity and i love the way Annie interacts with him. Their chemistry sizzles off the page. If you want intelligent writing, a suspensefull story, with action, romance and maybe learn a bit about art too, this is a great read. Can't wait for the next installment.

Discovering a body hanging in an art gallery wasn't on Annie Kincaid's agenda as she establishes herself as a legitimate faux finisher of art and furniture and abolishes her reputation as an art forger. Unfortunately, she doesn't have much say in the matter when Seamus McGraw apparently chose to commit suicide in the middle of his own San Francisco show. What's more of a concern to Annie is that her friend Bryan Boissevain, in a episode of hypochondria fell under the Stendhal Syndrome (fainting in the presence of extraordinary art and beauty), causing a distraction that allowed for the stealing of a priceless Chagall painting at the Brock Museum. While feeling obligated to help Bryan, whom the police believe was involved in the theft, Annie is also offered a commission if she's able to convince the temperamental artist Robert Pascal to return the sculpture he took to repair and now seems determined to keep. Needing the money and fearful that her art-forging grandfather may be involved, Annie reluctantly seeks the help of the dangerously sexy art thief Michael Who-Knows-What-His-Real-Name-Is.

In exchange for his help, Annie agrees to help Michael infiltrate the home of a wealthy art collector, where she unhappily recognizes many of her grandfather's work. Torn between working to prove Bryan's innocence on the right side of the law and helping Michael steal valuable paintings, Annie finds herself balancing between the exciting life of an art thief and the respectable life she's attempting to build.

Think of Stephanie Plum as an artist and you'll get a glimpse of Annie Kincaid, who manages to make disasters out of the surest plans and yet who continues to persevere. Surrounded by delightful sidekicks who hinder as much as they help, Annie keeps her sanity despite the arrival of her mother, who seems to have secrets of her own. Annie's immaturity can occasionally be annoying, especially in her dealings with her attractive art security expert and landlord, Frank DeBenton. While he helps her by lowering her rent and getting her out of her frequent jams, she continually hides from him when behind on rent and lies to him repeatedly about why she needs his help. In contrast, sexy Michael extorts information from her while she's dangling from hooks and has a habit of abandoning her at the scenes of crimes. Hopefully Annie will mature in her future third appearance of this series, as this extremely humorous and lively read never fails to entertain as it explores the highly fascinating world of art and forgery.

This is the second entry in the Art Lover’s Mystery series, formerly called the Annie Kincaid Mystery series. While the action in this novel follows the conclusion of the previous by about 6 months, this is not a standalone. Very little of the backstory established in the first novel is repeated but is necessary to fully understand the current dynamics.

The story opens about a week before Thanksgiving with Annie in attendance at the opening of a new metal sculpture exhibit at Anthony Brazil’s gallery. As she and Anthony stroll through the exhibit, Annie notices that part of one sculpture is not metal but is the body of the featured artist. Just as the police arrive at the gallery, the alarms at the adjacent Brock Museum sound. A Chagall painting is missing and one of Annie’s friends is suspected of complicity in the theft. Bryan Boissevain was a member of a tour group that caused a massive distraction just as the Chagall disappears. Annie deduces that the tour guide was none other than an important character from the first novel, an international art thief using the name Michael X. Johnson.

When the owner of the Brock Museum threatens Bryan’s life unless the painting is returned, Annie is determined to find the Chagall. At the same time, she is commissioned to facilitate the return of a famous sculpture to its owners, after the artist refused to return it following some repairs. Coincidentally, that artist is a former friend and current enemy of the artist found dead in the gallery. On the very next day, Frank DeBenton (another important character from the first novel) commissions Annie to repair a Picasso damaged during transport by the art security firm he owns.

And all this happens in the first 35 pages of the book. The question then becomes one of how all these events are related to each other, if at all. For the remainder of the book, the author weaves these elements in, out and around, with Annie being put in both ethical and mortal danger before the story concludes.

Hailey Lind crafts a story of murder, both current and past, and a story of past relationships long thought dead that impact on current lives. It is a story of lies, revenge, blackmail, family ties, pride, infidelity, thievery, forgery, insurance fraud, drugs and arms dealing.

In fact, it is a story with too many motivations encompassing too many characters in too short of a time frame. By the final denouement, instead of being satisfied with the outcome, I just felt dazed and confused. Too many major components were left hanging – unexplained entirely or just brushed over.

On a positive note, this book does have fine comedic relief in the midst of the tense and life-threatening events. The rejoinders, retorts and repartee are often hilarious. And Annie’s internal fight to remain a legitimate artist in spite of her childhood background in forgery is expounded upon and severely tested.

Hailey Lind expands that fight to remain legitimate into Annie’s personal life as well. The author team writes Annie as a person whose moral compass struggles hard to stay pointed at true north. The team writes Annie as a person who is attracted to both Michael and Frank but who consciously fights her hormones and refuses to pursue either – Michael because he is everything she once was and never wants to be again and Frank because he is involved with the mysterious, though never present, Ingrid.

But, above all, Hailey Lind writes Annie as a woman of purpose. Though flawed by her childhood upbringing, she is a woman intensely loyal to her friends and to her profession. She has moments of intense clarity and then can’t seem to see the proverbial forest for the trees.

In summary, I feel that the author duo created a murder mystery with more plot threads than they were able to handle well. But I also feel that they were able to craft the character of Annie in a superb manner. And for that reason, I will continue with the series.

I read several dozen mystery novels a year. I always finish, no matter how bad the book is. But after four or five pages of "Shooting Gallery" I put the book down.

When I want my intelligence insulted, I listen to people talking politics on the bus. When I read mysteries I expect to be challenged. This one began so badly I just couldn't finish it.

I have read all three adventures of Annie Kincaid and they are fantastic.
Waiting for more in these series.