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    The Artful Goddaughter
    The Artful Goddaughter
    The Artful Goddaughter
    Ebook79 pages55 minutes

    The Artful Goddaughter

    By Melodie Campbell

    3/5

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Mob goddaughter Gina Gallo stands to inherit two million bucks from her great-uncle Seb, a master forger. But there’s a catch: Uncle Seb wants Gina to make things right and return an extremely valuable painting to the City Art Gallery. If she can’t do it, her rat-face cousin Carmine gets the boodle.

    Reluctantly, Gina comes up with a plan for a reverse heist, as she has learned things never go as planned when her family gets involved. The wrong painting gets replaced, and Gina finds herself with two priceless masterpieces in hand! It won’t be long before someone realizes what’s going on.

    The Artful Goddaughter is the third novel in a series featuring Gina Gallo, who wants nothing more than to run her little jewelry store. But try as she might, Gina can’t escape the family business, with hilarious consequences.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOrca Book Publishers
    Release dateSep 1, 2014
    ISBN9781459808218
    The Artful Goddaughter
    Author

    Melodie Campbell

    Melodie Campbell is the winner of many awards for crime writing, including the Derringer and the Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence for The Goddaughter's Revenge. She has over 200 publications, including 100 comedy credits, 60 short stories, 17 novels and the Goddaughter series in the Rapid Reads line. Her work has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Star Magazine, Canadian Living, the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail and many more. She has been called the "Queen of Comedy" by the Toronto Star. Melodie lives in Burlington, Ontario.

    Read more from Melodie Campbell

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    Reviews for The Artful Goddaughter

    3/5

    5 ratings11 reviews

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    • 4/5
      The Artful Goddaughter is the third novel in the Gina Gallo mysteries. Don't worry if you haven't read the others though... it was easy to follow along. This book was a quick read, bursting with lots of action and laughs. The characters were lively and entertaining and the plot was enjoyable.
    • 4/5
      This is a fast read, action moves along at a nice clip. Silly but good, some action is implied or plans are made that the reader isn't privy to until the plan is in play. Third in a series, so I should like to go find the first two and get acquainted with Gina and her connected 'family'. Gina stands to gain a couple million from her recently deceased uncle, the art forger. Gina wants out of the Mob biz, but can't seem to shake 'family'. I like that it's in her blood, family is everything even if they aren't exactly on the straight and narrow path.A fun fast book.
    • 4/5
      More of an extended short story or a novella than a novel (it's only 127 pages of large print in a small format book that took about an hour to read), The Artful Goddaughter is a fast-paced, funny, caper kind of story. In order for Gina to collect her inheritance she has to fulfill her relative's dying wish to right a past wrong. There are stereotypical mob types, a bit of romance, a neatly plotted art gallery caper and even a foul mouthed parrot. The back of the book says this is a "rapid reads" book and that it is, which is somewhat of a shame because the story was engaging and the characters are endearing, leaving me wishing that there had been a bit more to this book!
    • 1/5
      I didn't know this was a YA book when I asked to read this as an early reviewer. I thought tis was such a cliche novella with really no subject to make me want to read it to the end, which I did. Was very surprised by the other reviews....maybe I'm missing something.
    • 3/5
      As with others I was surprised at how thin the book was. It really is more of a novella in my mind & I did not realize it was a YA story as well.That aside it was a fun book, events happened at a decent pace & it was funny. It stars Gina Gallo, a woman from a mob family trying to live a straight life & run her jewelry store but her family keeps getting in the way.Gina needs to right an old wrong to collect an inheritance and runs into a number of issues trying to do this.It went a bit fast for me. I felt like it was rushing me toward the finish line in places but I enjoyed it over all. Good characters, interesting plot. It just felt a bit lacking in pacing & detail in places. Like another 50 pages & some more depth would have made it an additional star.
    • 3/5
      I won this book on Librarything and really did not know anything about the book, publisher or author. I was quite surprised to receive such a thin book with big writing. Another reviewer on Goodreads gave it context. I gather it is designed to encourage adult new or reluctant readers. With that perspective, I appreciated it. The characters and story are very light, but it's quite funny. The comparison to Janet Evanovich is apt. And it's set in Hamilton Ontario, which is quite an achievement.
    • 3/5
      Melodie Campbell is the author of numerous articles and books. Here she continues her Gina Gallo mystery series with [The Artful Goddaughter]. Gina Gallo wants to go straight and just run her little jewelry store, but her mobbed-up family is always looking for a way to spin a little illicit cash from any enterprise, including Gina's store.In this adventure, Gina must contend with a cousin who steals credit card numbers, badly counterfeited cash imported from China, and the legacy of a master forger, whose will forces Gina to break and enter an art gallery to replace a fake with the original.Fast-paced and humorous, the book is a quick read--under an hour. At times, however, I felt the author was trying too hard. There were too many instances of a wink-and-a-nod to the reader. The book is funny enough without the author telegraphing the jokes.
    • 3/5
      So, I wasn't expecting a YA book, but once I reset my expectations, this was a fun little read. Gina Gallo will inherit two million from her uncle, but only if she can right a wrong he committed and return a painting to the rightful owners. Without getting caught in the process, of course! Gina isn't motivated by the money so much as depriving her low-life cousin from profiting should she fail. Did I mention her uncle was a forger and her family is the Mob? Told with funny twists and turns. A really quick read. Third in the series.
    • 4/5
      I received the third book, the Artful Goddaughter, free as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program. When I heard that, I bought the previous two so I could read the whole story. While each does a nice job of being a stand along story, having read the previous two made the third that much better. All were funny, faced-paced, easy stories that would make a great beach read. Campbell is has an excellent eye for the quirks of families and she created some memorable ones. Stories like these three could easily disolve into a mess of sterotypes, but Campbell avoids that with a deft hand. I enjoyed these works immensely. I look forward to reading the next ones!I received this free via the Early Reveiwer Program in exchange for my fair and honest opinion.
    • 4/5
      I received an ARC copy of 'The Artful Goddaughter' from LibraryThing and Orca Publishing yesterday and finished today. On the side cover it says "Rapid Reads" and this truly was a very quick read. Gina Gallo is a geologist who receives an inheritance from her Great-Uncle Deb but there's a small catch, she has to return a priceless painting back to the museum where he "acquired" it from. See Seb's an art forger, a really good art forger; that is until he checked out, permanently. This is a fun, tongue-in-cheek story of a very typical Italian-Jewish family who thinks nothing of having a family member offed. Kept chuckling throughout the book.Now don't be thinking this is a hard-driving mystery or one that will make you think a lot - this book isn't written to go up against longer, more in-depth books. This book is from Rapid Reads, a division of Orca Book Publishers who basically wants to get adults who have literacy goals to read - and I imagine that this book could very easily inspire someone to read this book and want more. Even the paperback copy I received has physical aspects that would encourage reading from the larger, cleaner pages to the paper that has a bit of a blue cast making it easy on the eyes (less strain).
    • 4/5
      Setting the scene:Location: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Present dayThe Characters: Gina Gallo, a gemologist with a store in downtown Hamilton. She tries, unsuccessfully, to avoid the mob activities of her family.Sammy, her uncle the underboss, one of his areas is counterfeiting and laundering money. It is cheaper to have $5 made in China and imported. He blames the Canadian economy. Mario, the cousin who runs the I.D. Theft Division, but he keeps stealing the credit card numbers of family members.Great-uncle Seb, the art forger Nico, a cousin who does B & E’s and car theft.and has yet to be caught.Pete, her fiance, a local sportswriterAssorted aunts, uncles and cousins, including some from the popular Buffalo side of the family.The Plot: Upon his death Great-uncle Seb leaves Gina a Kugel painting he wants returned to the art gallery and his forged piece removed. If she does this she will receive his multi-million dollar estate. If she fails it goes to Buffalo. Her plan includes using a cat, a parrot, a country and western singer, senior citizens and some cousins. I thought it a bit silly but I can see its appeal, it is humorous and a quick read. As part of the Rapid Reads series it would be popular. It is the third in the series and other titles have won or been short listed for major mystery awards.This is an Early Reviewers book.

    Book preview

    The Artful Goddaughter - Melodie Campbell

    THE

    Artful

    GODDAUGHTER

    THE

    Artful

    GODDAUGHTER

    MELODIE CAMPBELL

    Copyright © 2014 Melodie Campbell

    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.

    Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

    Campbell, Melodie, 1955-, author

    The artful goddaughter/ Melodie Campbell.

    (Rapid reads)

    Issued also in print and electronic formats.

    ISBN 978-1-4598-0819-5 (pbk.).--ISBN 978-1-4598-0820-1 (pdf ).--

    ISBN 978-1-4598-0821-8 (epub)

    I. Title. II. Series: Rapid reads

    PS8605.A54745A77 2014    C813'.6    C2014-901567-4

    C2014-901568-2

    First published in the United States, 2014

    Library of Congress Control Number: 2014935364

    Summary: In this work of crime fiction, Gina Gallo, mob goddaughter and unwilling sleuth, tries to return a valuable painting to the art gallery. (RL 3.5)

    Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

    Cover design by Jenn Playford

    Cover photography by Shutterstock

    www.orcabook.com

    17  16  15  14  •  4  3  2  1

    For Natalie and Alex,

    my smart and witty daughters.

    Contents

    ONE

    TWO

    THREE

    FOUR

    FIVE

    SIX

    SEVEN

    EIGHT

    NINE

    TEN

    ELEVEN

    TWELVE

    THIRTEEN

    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

    ONE

    When I was a girl, my favorite movie was The Pink Panther.

    Great-Uncle Franco owned a movie theater in town. He had a knock-off reel. We’d beg him to play that film on the big screen. I probably saw it thirty times. It became an obsession with me.

    When other girls dressed up for Halloween as princesses, I was decked out in head-to-toe black. With a mask.

    Girls can’t be cat burglars, my cousin Paulo told me.

    Yeah? I yelled back. What about Mad Magda?

    Paulo sneered. She’s not real. She’s just a legend, like Santa Claus. Only boys are burglars.

    This obviously did some serious damage. Because, of course, I had to prove him wrong. Even if it took me twenty years to do it.

    My name is Gina Gallo. That’s what it says on my passport—or at least one of them.

    I’m a gemologist by trade, not a professional cat burglar. The last thing I want now is a life of crime. But I am known in this burg for some pretty daring escapades. Some were even successful. Others, not so much.

    My fiancé, Pete, would say, You’re still out of jail. That’s successful.

    Frankly, I’d call it a miracle. Especially since I was now contemplating murder.

    It had happened again, and I was ready to kill someone.

    Lady, this card is no good.

    I was in Four-bucks. The gum-chewing barista held out the credit card. The one with my name on it. My real name.

    What?

    She shrugged. Machine says it’s been ‘compromised.’ She struggled over that big word.

    You’re kidding me. I snatched it from her hand. Then I stared at it to make sure I had given her the right one. Bugger. It was. I stormed out of the store without my double cream-no sugar and pound of beans.

    Outside in the sunlight, I punched a number on my cell.

    Where are you? I said to Sammy.

    At the chicken coop.

    I’ll be there in fifteen, I said. I clicked the phone off and went to find my car.

    Sammy is the underboss and Jewish cousin of my godfather, Uncle Vince. Yes, we can buy both bagels and bologna wholesale in this family. He’s a little guy, short on muscle but long on brains.

    I drove along Barton and turned left.

    We have a chicken coop on the shores of Lake Ontario. This is one of several properties owned by the family in the industrial city of Hamilton. Our skyline includes steel plants. We consider smog a condiment.

    The chicken coop is really a two-bedroom cottage. Some relative long ago kept chickens out back, so the place was assessed as a chicken coop for tax purposes. The chickens are long gone, but they never paid much tax anyway.

    We use it for private meetings, if you get my drift. And warehousing. I try not to think about that.

    I sped along North Service Road and swung onto a gravel drive. Sunlight glistened off Lake Ontario. Pretty, but it was November, and the water looked cold. I stopped the car and vaulted out.

    Sammy’s black Mercedes was parked farther up the drive. So was an expensive Italian motorcycle I recognized.

    I flung open the flimsy wooden

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