John Ballem was a successful Calgary-based lawyer who authored 14 mystery novels including this one,
Murder as a Fine Art, published in 2002. Set in Banff, a tourist town in the mountains an hour's drive from Calgary, Alberta, it makes full use of the gorgeous views and exploits the town's reputation as an artist's haven. Several arts festivals annually, serving many different disciplines, are held there: the ingredient mix of artistic ego, an exotic (Canadian) setting and a couple of murders promises an interesting meal.
Laura Janeway is a painter who has won the right to stay in a small, closely knit artist refuge in Banff, occupying one of eight of cottage studios where she can create without inhibitions and be inspired by fellow artists from other disciplines, sharing the colony's facilities and energy. Alas, first one resident dies suspiciously falling down stairs; then a second burns alive in her cottage, clearly the victim of arson ... and murder. The local officers arrive, and Laura finds herself caught up in the investigation. Are there more murders on the horizon?
Dundurn Press has published at least two other works by Ballem,
Victim of Convenience and
Manchineel, and I'd like to say I'll be rushing to pick up another. But I found his style workaday, his characters superficially drawn (certainly not standing out as "fine art"), the murderer rather too easy to guess and the whole experience something less than a sum of its parts. There are some nice touches as a travel advertisement for Banff.
Available in
Kobo,
Kindle and other editions, for about $7.