Still Lives

Starred review from April 23, 2018
When artist Kim Lord fails to show up at Los Angeles’s Rocque Museum for the gala opening of her show of self-portraits in the guises of famous murdered women such as Nicole Brown Simpson, museum staff editor Maggie Richter, the narrator of this exceptional suspense novel from Hummel (Motherland), gets involved in the subsequent investigation, in which Kim’s boyfriend, gallerist Greg Shaw Ferguson—Maggie’s ex—becomes the primary suspect in her disappearance. In her quest for the truth, Maggie must navigate the social and emotional edges of her own relationships, unsure of whom to trust. The careful characterizations of the players in the Rocque’s sphere of influence mean that, as the mystery unfolds to reveal them as suspects or victims, the reader feels deep empathy that comes from perceiving them as real people, not plot devices. Hummel builds visceral intimacy around “women’s oppressive anxiety about ultimate vulnerability” in this often uncomfortable tale about the media’s fetishistic fascination with the violent murders of beautiful women. Agent: Gail Hochman, Brandt & Hochman Literary.