“Laddie!” I call, and my lovable golden retriever rushes to my side, abandoning his early-morning patrol of the backyard. He spots his leash in my hand and whips his tail back and forth, eager to take a walk to the park with me. My calico cat Mona Lisa takes a dim view of our imminent departure, leaping to the top of her kitty tree and turning her back on us.

As Laddie prances beside me, I think about the day ahead. It’s going to be a milestone for me—my first day in Lonesome Valley’s popular cooperative Roadrunner Art Gallery of which I am now the newest member.

I am amazed at how much my life has changed in less than a year. Only last June I was a married woman living in Kansas City and just beginning to get some recognition as an artist with my first solo show at Crystal Star’s Gallery. After a fabulous opening party, I was over the moon. That was when my husband Ned decided to tell me he was divorcing me to marry Candy, his assistant, who’s the same age as our son. (He neglected to mention that they had a baby on the way, too.)

Way to burst my bubble, Ned!

It took me a few months to get back on my feet and plan a new life for myself as a full-time artist.

Now that I’ve made a new home in Arizona, I feel a bit nervous about launching my new career . . . . Will I be able to support myself as an artist? If Crystal Star hadn’t sold several of my oil paintings during my one-and-only show, I might not have had the nerve to try, but here I am, for better or worse.

Despite my anxiety, I’m excited to start my first workday in the gallery. All the members take turns staffing the Roadrunner a few days each month. I wait outside the gallery for Susan, the artist who’ll be showing me the ropes. Unfortunately, Janice, the formidable gallery director will be on hand, too. She’s quite pushy and opinionated, and I hope to avoid her as much as possible. That might prove difficult, though. Susan tells me that Janice lives upstairs in the gallery building, so she seldom leaves the place.

After a few minutes, Susan arrives. She’s surprised that Janice hasn’t opened the gallery yet. When she tries to call Janice but gets no answer, she lets us in with her key.

Susan switches the lights on, and I scan the gallery. There’s no sign of Janice, but I spot something on the floor in the back of the gallery.

When I come closer, I see that it’s a small bronze sculpture of a bear. I pick it up and put it back on top of its wooden display pedestal. Puzzled, we look around the room, but nothing else appears to be amiss.

When Susan tells me that the bear is Janice’s sculpture, I react with surprise, thinking the intimidating gallery director will probably be furious when she finds out her bronze bear ended up on the floor. The piece doesn’t look as though it was damaged, so perhaps it won’t upset her as much as I suspect it might.

I follow Susan around the corner, and we find out the reason Janice didn’t open the gallery this morning.

Janice lies sprawled on the floor, still and silent, her hair matted with blood.

Susan screams and runs to her as I call 9-1-1, but it’s too late.

The gallery director is dead!

Artistic License to Kill by Paula Darnell, Fine Art Mystery #1
Genre: Cozy
Release: January 2021
Purchase Link

Artist Amanda Trent, accompanied by her beloved golden retriever Laddie and her persnickety calico cat Mona Lisa, is determined to start a new life after her husband divorces her to marry a younger woman, but it isn’t easy.

After a disastrous interview at the prestigious Roadrunner Gallery in Lonesome Valley, Arizona, far away from her previous home in Kansas City, Amanda’s afraid that she’ll fail at her new career. But her prospects begin to improve when she’s accepted as the newest member of the cooperative gallery.

Then, on her very first day, she discovers Janice, the stern director, has been murdered right in the art gallery, and the Roadrunner’s members, including Amanda herself, become suspects. Which gallery member murdered the unpopular director? Or was the killer an outsider with an ax to grind?

Meet the author
Award-winning author Paula Darnell is a former college instructor who has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Iowa and a Master of Arts degree in English with a Writing Emphasis from the University of Nevada, Reno. Artistic License to Kill is the first book in her Fine Art Mystery series. She’s also the author of the DIY Diva Mystery series and The Six-Week Solution, a historical mystery set in Nevada. She resides in Las Vegas with her husband Gary and their Pyrador Rocky. You can visit her website at pauladarnellauthor.com.

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