What do you think?
Rate this book
Dark Chronicles #2
The Gallery
When a high schooler gets a job in the art department of a nearby university, she begins to suspect that the campus is haunted by a ghost—and maybe even a serial killer
LaDonna Martindale hopes that her new job at the local college will help to inspire her own painting. But every night, in the art school basement, she sorts canvases for the upcoming gallery showing. And every night, she feels the same strange, comforting presence of someone in the basement with her—even if she can’t see him.
When LaDonna suddenly discovers a beautiful painting on the basement wall that wasn’t there before, she realizes that her ghost is an incredible artist. Maybe, just maybe, he can be the muse she’s been lacking.
But when a string of murders on campus turns her small town upside down, LaDonna isn’t sure whom to trust—her best friend, Johnny; the art school director; or even her ghost. LaDonna can sense someone stalking her whenever she’s on campus, and she starts to wonder if she might be the serial killer’s next victim.
LaDonna Martindale hopes that her new job at the local college will help to inspire her own painting. But every night, in the art school basement, she sorts canvases for the upcoming gallery showing. And every night, she feels the same strange, comforting presence of someone in the basement with her—even if she can’t see him.
When LaDonna suddenly discovers a beautiful painting on the basement wall that wasn’t there before, she realizes that her ghost is an incredible artist. Maybe, just maybe, he can be the muse she’s been lacking.
But when a string of murders on campus turns her small town upside down, LaDonna isn’t sure whom to trust—her best friend, Johnny; the art school director; or even her ghost. LaDonna can sense someone stalking her whenever she’s on campus, and she starts to wonder if she might be the serial killer’s next victim.
- GenresHorror
173 pages, ebook
First published July 28, 1995
37 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 28, 2025
It's been a bit since I read the first book in Barbara Steiner's Dark Chronicles series, but I don't think there is any true connection between the stories...at least that I can remember.
The first one was about dancers and this one is about an artist hence The Dance and The Gallery.
The main character is a high school senior named LaDonna Martindale who is usually really good at painting but lately she has been having a major block in her creativity. Despite this, her art teacher thinks she would be perfect to handle a job at the local college art department by going through some paintings that have been found.
The first girl hired for the job quit suddenly and he thinks she would be perfect. LaDonna accepts because she will be paid for her time, and she doesn't mind that she will have to be in the basement.
LaDonna ends up walking there with her best and only friend Johnny Blair who she has known since childhood, and they live in the same neighborhood. Johnny is a pianist as well as a painter and he uses the grand piano at the college in the same arts building since the one at home may get on his mother's nerves. Johnny offers to walk LaDonna home at night, but she says she doesn't mind the darkness, and it also is an excuse not to run into her dad.
He has raised her since her mother died when she was 10 but LaDonna has found him moody since then and tries not to overcrowd him and they just can't find anything to talk about to each other.
Three weeks into the job, a mysterious painting appears to LaDonna, and it is freshly painted. She came to the conclusion that something was in the darkness of the basement with her, but LaDonna didn't run away screaming.
The painting is beautiful and LaDonna believes that a ghost is behind the picture. She tells this to Johnny and he thinks the seclusion is making her crazy but not in a snide or rude way. The following day, LaDonna finds another new art piece and a note written in answer to her own and then a voice speaks to her.
She knows he isn't there to harm her and LaDonna and this disembodied artist form a kinship in few words. When LaDonna leaves that night, a rainstorm has hit campus and, on her walk home, LaDonna almost gets plowed down by a woman out jogging.
She is frightened out of her wits because it wasn't storming when she first left, and the girl also tells LaDonna that she thinks someone was chasing after her. The next morning, LaDonna wakes up to find her father at the breakfast table in a bad mood but not of anger as he shows her the local newspaper.
A musician friend of Johnny's was found murdered in one of the practice rooms on campus by Johnny himself. Both he and her father, a janitor at the college, where questioned by police all night after the body of the girl was found. LaDonna and the girl out jogging, Mary Lou, could have easily been the one attacked last night but were safe...for now.
Johnny doesn't come to school, distraught because he knew the girl who was killed, and LaDonna ends up cut school to go to the basement. Channeling Johnny's pain, LaDonna finds herself painting a masterpiece similar to the ones the ghost has left for her, a spirit she now calls Mr. Sable from an Edward Young poem about the night that he recites to her.
LaDonna is beginning to get her artistic spark back but the student teacher, Eric Hunter, assisting her art teacher Mr. Rodriquez doesn't believe it is her work. LaDonna brushes aside Eric's critique and goes to see Johnny after leaving school. She convinces him to go back to the college campus so he can practice for an upcoming performance and Johnny invites LaDonna to stay with him and watch.
When she hears the way that Johnny plays the piano and becomes one with the music, LaDonna becomes overwhelmed and has the epiphany that she is in love with Johnny. Heading down to the basement gallery, LaDonna paints another picture with her love for Johnny as the inspiration and is given praise by Mr. Sable. At school the next day, LaDonna and Johnny learn from Mr. Rodriquez that another girl was attacked but managed to get away.
LaDonna doesn't know what to think when she learns that the girl who had the job before her, an artist named Minette, becomes the third victim to be attacked...and the second to be murdered.
There is an evil presence on the campus at Bellpont College going after talented female students and LaDonna doesn't know that it is someone or something...very close.
You pretty much have the ghost as a suspect but also Johnny and LaDonna's father as well as the student art teacher as the main ones to jump out at you.
The climatic reveal of the killer and just who "Mr. Sable" really is form a tenuous connection to one another. That is brilliant on Steiner's part since it leads up to quite a bittersweet ending that leans more towards the sweet side of the coin.
The Gallery is a suspenseful ghost story and murder mystery rolled into one enjoyable page turner worth getting your hands on.
The first one was about dancers and this one is about an artist hence The Dance and The Gallery.
The main character is a high school senior named LaDonna Martindale who is usually really good at painting but lately she has been having a major block in her creativity. Despite this, her art teacher thinks she would be perfect to handle a job at the local college art department by going through some paintings that have been found.
The first girl hired for the job quit suddenly and he thinks she would be perfect. LaDonna accepts because she will be paid for her time, and she doesn't mind that she will have to be in the basement.
LaDonna ends up walking there with her best and only friend Johnny Blair who she has known since childhood, and they live in the same neighborhood. Johnny is a pianist as well as a painter and he uses the grand piano at the college in the same arts building since the one at home may get on his mother's nerves. Johnny offers to walk LaDonna home at night, but she says she doesn't mind the darkness, and it also is an excuse not to run into her dad.
He has raised her since her mother died when she was 10 but LaDonna has found him moody since then and tries not to overcrowd him and they just can't find anything to talk about to each other.
Three weeks into the job, a mysterious painting appears to LaDonna, and it is freshly painted. She came to the conclusion that something was in the darkness of the basement with her, but LaDonna didn't run away screaming.
The painting is beautiful and LaDonna believes that a ghost is behind the picture. She tells this to Johnny and he thinks the seclusion is making her crazy but not in a snide or rude way. The following day, LaDonna finds another new art piece and a note written in answer to her own and then a voice speaks to her.
She knows he isn't there to harm her and LaDonna and this disembodied artist form a kinship in few words. When LaDonna leaves that night, a rainstorm has hit campus and, on her walk home, LaDonna almost gets plowed down by a woman out jogging.
She is frightened out of her wits because it wasn't storming when she first left, and the girl also tells LaDonna that she thinks someone was chasing after her. The next morning, LaDonna wakes up to find her father at the breakfast table in a bad mood but not of anger as he shows her the local newspaper.
A musician friend of Johnny's was found murdered in one of the practice rooms on campus by Johnny himself. Both he and her father, a janitor at the college, where questioned by police all night after the body of the girl was found. LaDonna and the girl out jogging, Mary Lou, could have easily been the one attacked last night but were safe...for now.
Johnny doesn't come to school, distraught because he knew the girl who was killed, and LaDonna ends up cut school to go to the basement. Channeling Johnny's pain, LaDonna finds herself painting a masterpiece similar to the ones the ghost has left for her, a spirit she now calls Mr. Sable from an Edward Young poem about the night that he recites to her.
LaDonna is beginning to get her artistic spark back but the student teacher, Eric Hunter, assisting her art teacher Mr. Rodriquez doesn't believe it is her work. LaDonna brushes aside Eric's critique and goes to see Johnny after leaving school. She convinces him to go back to the college campus so he can practice for an upcoming performance and Johnny invites LaDonna to stay with him and watch.
When she hears the way that Johnny plays the piano and becomes one with the music, LaDonna becomes overwhelmed and has the epiphany that she is in love with Johnny. Heading down to the basement gallery, LaDonna paints another picture with her love for Johnny as the inspiration and is given praise by Mr. Sable. At school the next day, LaDonna and Johnny learn from Mr. Rodriquez that another girl was attacked but managed to get away.
LaDonna doesn't know what to think when she learns that the girl who had the job before her, an artist named Minette, becomes the third victim to be attacked...and the second to be murdered.
There is an evil presence on the campus at Bellpont College going after talented female students and LaDonna doesn't know that it is someone or something...very close.
You pretty much have the ghost as a suspect but also Johnny and LaDonna's father as well as the student art teacher as the main ones to jump out at you.
The climatic reveal of the killer and just who "Mr. Sable" really is form a tenuous connection to one another. That is brilliant on Steiner's part since it leads up to quite a bittersweet ending that leans more towards the sweet side of the coin.
The Gallery is a suspenseful ghost story and murder mystery rolled into one enjoyable page turner worth getting your hands on.
December 19, 2021
Interesting premise and a good ending. Nice quick read. Not sure how this is a “series” though
October 6, 2015
Actual page number- 170 pages
It wasn't bad.
A few suspenseful parts with some interesting ghost scenes and a good moral but the plot wasn't special and there wasn't much else that this book is forgettable at best.
The main character wasn't interesting to me, although I do feel feel for her frustration with her art ability.
It wasn't bad.
A few suspenseful parts with some interesting ghost scenes and a good moral but the plot wasn't special and there wasn't much else that this book is forgettable at best.
The main character wasn't interesting to me, although I do feel feel for her frustration with her art ability.
October 14, 2014
Ooo! Really good and really creepy. The perfect book for a gloomy Autumn day.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews