A failing art museum is pinning its hopes on a challenging art show featuring paintings of murdered LA women; but when the artist disappears on the night of the opening, the stakes become even higher in Maria Hummel's Still Lives.
Hummel writes a highly literary thriller that is as much a searing indictment on the California art scene as it is a mystery. In fact, our protagonist--a writer/editor at the museum with a background in investigative journalism, which she left after a traumatic experience--doesn't really knuckle down and get into finding the artist until about halfway through.
Hummel's background seems to be literary fiction, and she is a professor of English, but even though there are highly interesting characters and relationships and vivid writing, it is in the end just a crackling good thriller. It's rare that I have trouble putting a book down, but the last fifty pages or so had me locked in.
I really enjoyed this book and will recommend it readily.
I checked this out from the New Castle-Henry County Public Library in New Castle, Indiana, and read it very quickly.
No comments:
Post a Comment