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Still Lives by Maria Hummel


portraits of women overlaid with geometric shapes in primary colors
Still Lives by Maria Hummel

I've never read a novel by Maria Hummel but the synopsis of this caught me. A murder mystery that was chosen as a pick for Reese's Book Club back in August of 2018. Be aware, this book deals with not just a missing woman, but several infamous murder cases from Los Angeles, as well as references to loss of a pregnancy, child neglect and abuse, stalking, and a suicide attempt.


Maggie works for a prestigious art museum in Los Angeles and they're about to reveal a brand new, provocative exhibition from groundbreaking artist Kim Lord. But on the night of the gala, Kim never shows up. Is this some sort of PR stunt to increase the coverage and visibility of the new exhibition, no publicity is bad publicity after all, or is Kim Lord really missing? On top of that, Maggie gets sucked in to the investigation because she is the spurned ex-girlfriend of Kim Lord's boyfriend, Shaw. Did Shaw make Kim Lord go missing, or did seeing the two of them in the spotlight become too much for Maggie? To exonerate herself and Shaw, Maggie must figure out who really made Kim Lord disappear. Luckily, she once trained as an investigative journalist and has some tricks up her sleeve to, hopefully, solve this case.


This is one of the slower moving books that I've read recently, it didn't really pick up steam until about 60% of the way in, but once it started moving I had a hard time putting it down. The way that Maria Hummel writes feels like poetry, full of flowing metaphors that really paint a picture in your head. Even with that, it was hard to connect to the main character, almost like she's holding herself aloof. You watch her put herself into difficult, dangerous, sometimes embarrassing situations, but you don't really feel for her. It wasn't until the very end that I felt any sort of concern for her.


I'm giving Still Lives by Maria Hummel 3.75 stars out of 5. It wasn't the most action packed but the story was interesting and easy to follow for the most part. I enjoyed the ending and seeing Maggie start to deal with some of her baggage finally. There's a subsequent Maggie novel, Lesson in Red, that I may read at some point.


Find out more about Maria Hummel at https://mariahummel.com/


Pairs well with coconut macaroons and the Santa Ana winds.

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