The first in a series to follow the adventures of artist and amateur sleuth Annie Kincaid, Feint of Art turned out to be the fun and witty read that its title promised.
Annie Kincaid is a gifted artist who, although struggling financially, is rich in friends. Several years ago she was bounced out of her budding career as an art restorer at San Francisco’s fictional Brock Art Museum for being the granddaughter and one-time apprentice of a forger. Since then she has built a good business doing faux finishes in the bay area’s hot interior decorating market, painting the occasional portrait to soothe her artistic soul.
Because of her intimate knowledge of forgery -- she went to jail in Paris at the age of 16 for flooding the market with faked Old Masters -- an old boyfriend who still works at the Brock calls upon her to render a verdict on a recent high-profile acquisition. Within an hour of her declaring the painting a forgery, her old boyfriend disappears, and another museum worker is murdered.
Annie lives in Oakland: “My home was the top floor...of a once-stately Victorian...The plumbing and electrical systems were suspect, but the rent was cheap, moldings were ornate, and if you stood on the toilet you could glimpse the San Francisco Bay from the bathroom window. The place was a lot like me: a bit quirky, occasionally contrary, but with lots of character.”
Those quirks make Annie a fun character to spend time with, and while her contrariness sometimes had me shaking my head at the fixes she got herself into, it certainly enlivened the story.
Annie’s San Francisco art studio has a “wide wooden plank floor and exposed brick walls; the inviting sitting area with the faux fireplace I had painted on the wall; the skylights high overhead; the half-dead ficus tree; the jumble of easels, shelves of art supplies, and worktables piled with paintings and pictures and artifacts at various stages of completion; the smell of linseed oil and turpentine. I loved my studio, and most of my clients were thrilled to get a peek at a working artist’s space.”
As Annie is drawn deeper into the mystery of the forged painting and her missing ex-boyfriend, she learns that several other acquaintances in the art world have vanished -- one with some extremely valuable Old Master sketches. Since the hunky but uptight new owner of her rented studio plans to double her rent, she decides to expand her sleuthing to track down the stolen sketches and claim a substantial finders fee.
The investigation brings her into contact with a laundry-list of forgers, thieves, and other colorful characters intent on double-crossing each other. It brings her the unwanted professional attention of a couple of San Francisco Detective Inspectors. And it sets up something of a budding romantic triangle between Annie, her straightlaced landlord, and an equally attractive but morally reprehensible art thief. The triangle was pleasantly reminiscent of the one in Janet Evanovich’s early Stephanie Plum novels, and in fact Annie’s motley crew of sidekicks and the characters and situations she encounters all rang a welcome but toned-down Evanovich bell.
Annie’s trusty beater of a truck transports her all over the bay area, and Hailey Lind’s descriptions were so evocative I felt like I was riding along: from San Francisco, where she can never find parking; to Oakland, where she eats some great food; to a bungalow-turned-antique shop in Napa Valley; to the ritzy island of Belvedere, where she is marooned by the cute art thief. Whether you already know and love the bay area, or are planning a first trip to it, Feint of Art provides a quirky and enjoyable tour.
The story reaches a satisfying climax during a gala event at the very museum from which she’s been banished, and Hailey Lind does a good job of tying up the dangling plot threads of this very entertaining debut book. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
