Shelved Under Murder

It's Heritage Festival time in Taylorsford, Virginia, and library director Amy Webber is in the swing of setting up the arts and crafts festival. In Shelved Under Murder by Victoria Gilbert, Amy, her boyfriend Richard and her assistant Sunny are trying to accommodate the demands of the Friends board president Melody Riley and include some fine art in the festival.

As much as she would like include paintings by her late uncle's artwork, but she knows her aunt Lydia would never part with any. Throughout his life her uncle struggled to sell his paintings and Lydia still holds an idealized vision of his ability.

Instead of her uncle's painting, they are able to acquire two paintings from an internationally-known local artist Rachel LeBlanc. Amy and Sunny head to her studio to pick up the donated paintings and discover Rachel stabbed to death with her own palette knife.

As the police are searching the studio they find a cache of paintings, some resembling well-known masterpieces, but obviously forged. When chief deputy Brad Tucker asks Amy to use her art history knowledge to investigate the painting. It's seems clear that Rachel would not need to forge paintings because she was highly successful, but as Amy investigates, she finds her uncle might have been involved. Amy knows this would devastate her aunt Lydia so she treads softly.

There are plenty of other suspects including an unscrupulous art dealer, the husband of the murdered artist, the Friends president and several others. A fun and fast-paced mystery.

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