Artistic License

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Set in Chicago, Hyzy's smooth, well-paced debut features a vulnerable but resilient heroine, among other credible and diverting characters. Newly embarked on her career as a muralist, Annie Callaghan is dismayed to discover that she's pregnant, having been seduced by her soon-to-be-exhusband, Gary Randall. A charming cad, Gary gets Annie to bail him out of jail and soon moves back in with her. Meanwhile, Annie has agreed to paint a wall at Millie's Ice Cream Parlour, an old-fashioned soda fountain, for the attractive new owner, Sam Morgan, who proves to be a most sympathetic friend as well as employer. When a breezy customer of Millie's, Gina DeChristopher, hires Annie to paint a playroom for her sons in her elegant house, Gina even offers the professional services of her husband, an intimidating lawyer with a substantial art collection. The tension builds with the theft of a Dürer drawing worth $10 million on its way to the Chicago Art Institute, a kidnapping and a murder whose chief suspect is Annie herself.