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Format: Kindle
Description
A gothic ghost storyCaravaggio meets Poltergeist... When art appraiser Anita Cassatt is sent to catalogue the extensive collection of reclusive artist Leo Kubin, it isn't the chill of the secluded house making her shiver, it's the hundreds of portraits clustered on the walls, watching. Kubin's lawyer didn't share the dead artist's instructions for handling his art, and Anita and her team start work ignorant of the instructions designed to keep them safe. Safe from the art. There are secrets hiding in Kubin's house, and as Anita and her team discover, some secrets don't want to stay hidden...Painted is a gothic ghost story filled with psychological unease and a healthy fear of the dark. "The Antiques Roadshow... if Stephen King was the host..." Perfect for lovers of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House."Refreshing to encounter this subtle, delicate narrative where horror peeps slyly out..." "Painted is an effective haunted house book, favoring tension and subtlety over outright violence and kills.""McKenzie does an incredible job in the characterization of the people in her novel. With each and every one, I came away with the feeling that I knew them--down to even the secrets they kept hidden from each other." "This novel literally took my breath away in places." "The plot is sensationally addictive and the creepy factor kept me alert page after page." "No gore or cheap scares here, this is a subtle and delicate chiller written in the spirit of a Shirley Jackson novel." Read more
Publisher : Squabbling Sparrows Press (June 25, 2017)
Publication date : June 25, 2017
Language : English
File size : 1601 KB
Simultaneous device usage : Unlimited
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
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Top Amazon Reviews
4.5 stars! PAINTED is not only the first novel I've read from author Kirsten McKenzie, but also her first foray into the horror genre. There have long been sayings regarding 'the eyes being a window to the soul', and the way that McKenzie choses to utilize this idea to shape her book gives it an incredibly fresh outlook. When Leo Kubin, an extremely reclusive artist, sends over very specific instructions as to how his vast art collection is to be handled--to the law firm he'd always dealt with--he had no idea about the recent changes there. Mainly, the gentleman who always dealt with his clients in a supportive and protective manner, has died. Unfortunately for the firm's elderly clients, his son--Alan Gates Jr.--is nothing like his father. Concerned only with the bottom-dollar line for himself, this arrogant, lecherous man disregards Mr. Kubin's explicit instructions as a senile old man's nonsense, and more importantly to him, a waste of extra time and money. Therefore, it is without the benefit of these "safety measures" that the company hired to itemize and catalog for auction the contents of the late Mr. Kubin's vast estate are sent to begin their jobs. Art appraiser, Anita Cassat arrives at the out of the way mansion days before her colleagues, as it is expected that the sheer number of paintings assembled there will take much longer to appraise. Once there, Anita is instantly filled with a fear that she is being watched, despite being the only human present. "An audience of eyes, immortalized in portraits clustered on every wall . . . " McKenzie does an incredible job in the characterization of the people in her novel. With each and every one, I came away with the feeling that I knew them--down to even the secrets they kept hidden from each other. When one of them startles, you can practically see the physical shiver and changes that affect them. These are complete individuals--even the ones that have ceased to exist, as we know it. ". . . Their eyes the brightest part of every portrait, capturing the essence of their humanity . . . more than the subjects thought they would ever reveal to anyone . . ." When Anita begins handling the portraits, the uneasy atmosphere in the story begins to ramp up incredibly. The tension remains so thick, that I found it difficult to find a place to stop reading for a time, reluctant to leave the world that was unfolding before me. The portraits are--at first--the primary source of Anita's apprehension, and plant the seed that something is "off" about this job. As she handled one particular picture, she noted: ". . . The edges were indistinct, and the eyes smudged beyond recognition as if someone had tried to gouge them out . . . " ". . . It was easy to ignore the known. It was the unknown which made her mouth dry and her pulse race." Some elements of the sinister atmosphere the old estate had festered are provided by the few thoughts and comments from an elderly farmer, who'd lived next to it his entire life. ". . . the house had a reputation . . . Most threw themselves off the cliff and were swallowed by the sea . . . " There was so much complex mystery twined in this tale, that just when I thought I figured out something, a new element would present itself to decipher and add to the confusion. ". . . This wasn't a life he wanted to lead. It wasn't his life either. That was over." Eventually Anita is joined by her colleagues, each specializing in a different area of appraisement. Even here, McKenzie's skills shine through as we get to intimately know the new arrivals. The tension--even with the additional bodies--continues to maintain and even increase its presence, until all around harbor a silent fear of . . . something, yet intangible, to them. ". . . You're next, you're next, you're next." This novel literally took my breath away in places. Some of the prose took on dual meanings when faced with an unknown threat. Even the secrets that were revealed remained cloaked in a thin layer of mystery that we, perhaps, weren't meant to ever unravel. "Twilight is the master of disguise. The champion of falsehoods and fiction. The eye wasn't designed for twilight . . . " While there were moments in the story where the action slowed considerably, overall I felt this novel was a fascinating read, full of explicitly presented atmosphere, realistic characters, and a supernatural force that hadn't been overdone in other novels. The ideas were shown with a "fresh" approach to the subject matter, leaving behind a shred of mystery for readers to ponder over after they finished. ". . . Hindsight is a terrible gift when you realize you've destroyed more beauty than you created." I am greatly looking forward to reading Kirsten McKenzie's next horror-themed novel. Highly recommended!
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Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2017 by K. A. Y.
When Nickleby’s Trusts, Estates and Valuation Services sends Anita Cassatt to the large and isolated home of a recently deceased artist, she steps into a nightmare. This dream job for Nickleby’s Art Valuation department, although time consuming, would normally be fairly straight forward. Anita assures her boss that she’s looking forward to getting on with the job and that staying in the big old house alone for a few days until her colleagues arrive doesn’t bother her. “It’s just art,” she says. “What could go wrong?” Little does she know how much evil lurks in the house and in the portraits themselves. Kirsten McKenzie’s Painted begins quietly enough. Page by page though, McKenzie ramps up the tension, crafting a real page turner, a horror story from which the only escape is a race against time. As McKenzie draws the various threads of the story together – the past of the family that lived in the house, the work of Anita and her valuation colleagues, and an unresolved event in Anita’s past – fear mount for the chance of a less than tragic ending. When it does come, the finale is disturbing and completely unexpected.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2017 by Carolyn
Painted, in terms of its setup and location, is deliciously creepy. An old, creaky mansion full of old, forgotten, and sinister-looking paintings, with portrayals of sad-looking men, women, and children whose eyes seem to follow your footsteps. Anita, an art appraiser, is sent off to stay at the mansion, and has to stay there for several days to tally the value of the paintings, other artwork, and household items for auction when the owner dies. The way the book tells it, Anita probably stayed at the mansion for about seven to eight nights. I wasn’t sure why it took so long. There were no environmental disruptions inside the house, like a flooding or the roof caving in. If I had about fifty paintings, although I have absolutely zero expertise, I imagine I could probably go through them all in one day. The author nicely has Amanda show how she does her work, i.e. record the title, the artist, the frame, and so on, and describe it if the information is not inscribed. Trouble is, it sounds like a five minute job per painting. But of course the story needs this captive mood, the sense of being stuck in one place, and so on, being hostage to all these creepy paintings. Later on in the book the auction business needs three (!!) more people to assess the rest of the items in the house. As well, there a pompous lawyer there too. It was at the point where the arrogant lawyer arrives that I felt the book deflate a bit. Prior to that, it was fascinating learning about Anita, her background, the world of art and auction houses, and so on. The author in her biography said she worked at an auction house, and it shows. It was fun being in that ghostly house, with its out-of-date access to the modern world and its seaside location. After that, there are too many characters described in detail, every move they make, oblivious to where everyone is. The pacing seemed strange and the characters very distant, as if they didn’t care where anyone else was. One thing the author had trouble was in describing action. I found it hard to follow where characters went, how they fell, how they saw things, and so on. Switching to a ghost’s point of view was also hard because I wasn’t sure what was happening to the character in danger. Also, with so many characters' movements accounted for, the book bogged down and it sort of became like one journal of movements and tracking points inside a large house. The book even tracked the whereabouts of an outsider, a neighbouring farmer. I also didn’t understand what happened to the ghostly characters, and what happened in their past. Agatha Christie would probably have disposed of a body in one paragraph. Characters flip personalities too easy on the side of a dime, at odds with their carefully built-up detail when introduced. This made me hard to care for any of them, because they weren’t consistent. I also couldn’t tell if the characters were acting nasty in response to stress because that’s how they behave under pressure, or if they were possessed by an evil spirit for a while. I loved the connections to the paintings and the implication that art can be evil and beautiful and intriguing all at the same time. I liked Anita’s character at the beginning, before the too many inconveniences and mishaps started to make her look wishy-washy as she keeps putting up with them rather than simply drive home. I would definitely read this book again if the outcome was handled differently and maybe with fewer characters and things cut down or clarified, (especially what happened to the descendant who lived in the house) as the setting and the art world naturally hooks me anyway.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2017 by Future Boy