Art's Blood

by Vicki Lane

Book Overview

North Carolina's hills are a crazy quilt of old farmsteads and new beginnings, of locals, strangers, artists, and new age wanderers....Here Elizabeth Goodweather has made her life, a still-young widow who moves easily between the gentrified world of Asheville and old-timers in their hollows. But when a flamboyant performance artist is murdered, and Elizabeth learns the amazing history of a magnificent piece of folk art, she gets caught between her two worlds-and in the middle of an agonizing mystery. A young woman, taking her artwork to the breaking point, has brought a history of unexplained deaths and dangerous liaisons into Elizabeth's life. Courted by an ex-cop, trying to protect her love-struck nephew, Elizabeth knows that danger has entered her peaceful world. But she can't guess how deadly the threat is-nor how masterfully a killer can hide....

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0440242096
• ISBN13: 9780440242093
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Dell
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 4.3" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Fast, careful service

The book arrived quickly, packed well and in the best condition. I will use this seller again.

Better then her first!

I am so glad I liked this book better than the first. I really like the characters and I love the setting, so I was hoping Ms. Lane's second book would not have that second book slump that happens to some authors. Well, I thought the mystery was great. I thought I had the mystery figured out, more than once, and more than once I was wrong! I also loved Ms. Lane's descriptions of the beautiful North Carolina Mountains, and her descriptions of her flowers, and farming. Just an overall fun read. I look forward to her next one.

mystery with history

Vicki Lane's books are great-hard to put down once you start. She is skillful in weaving in local history, language, and customs as part of the narrative. And the outcomes are not to be guessed until the very last pages.

A fine piece of work

"Art's Blood" is the second book in Vicki Lane's Elizabeth Goodweather series and every bit as satisfying as the first. As the characters grow and develop, the reader feels one's own roots begin to sink into the fertile mountain soil. When Elizabeth agrees to set up a quilt show at the library, she gets to meet Phil Hawkins' Aunt Omie and finds a beautiful quilt that ties in to the stories of several generations. The plots are as intricately woven as a fine piece of embroidery and as complex and dazzling in their entirety as a hand-stitched Lone Star quilt. When I finished this book, I was as sated as Elizabeth after dinner at Aunt Omie's and I look forward to her third book in the series as eagerly as an invitation to visit with an old friend. With the myriad of people living in North Carolina and the ever-changing scenery of the Applachians, there is definitely enough material to create many more in what will hopefully be a long-lived series. And Vicki Lane is exactly the right seamstress to keep on creating these works of art! Thank you, Vicki, for sharing your talent with the rest of us!

This is what a mystery book should be like ...

From the first page to the last, Vicki Lane has done it again. Many twists and turns that keep you wondering who/what/where/why until the last few pages of the book. It's an amazing read ... one of those that you keep reading to find out what happened, yet when you're done it's sad because all her wonderful characters/settings are gone til her next book. She is truly a gifted writer that will be around a long, long time.