AUDIO BOOK: Still Lives by Maria Hummel

Publication Date: June 5, 2018 Format: audio  Genre:  Suspense Narrator: Tavia Gilbert

Publisher: High Bridge Length:  9 hours 35 minutes Buy: Kindle | Audio

Synopsis

Kim Lord is an avant-garde figure, feminist icon, and agent provocateur in the L.A. art scene. Her groundbreaking new exhibition Still Lives is comprised of self-portraits depicting herself as famous, murdered women―the Black Dahlia, Chandra Levy, Nicole Brown Simpson, among many others―and the works are as compelling as they are disturbing, implicating a culture that is too accustomed to violence against women. 

As the city’s richest art patrons pour into the Rocque Museum’s opening night, all the staff, including editor Maggie Richter, hope the event will be enough to save the historic institution’s flailing finances. 

Except Kim Lord never shows up to her own gala. 

Fear mounts as the hours and days drag on and Lord remains missing. Suspicion falls on the up-and-coming gallerist Greg Shaw Ferguson, who happens to be Maggie’s ex. A rogue’s gallery of eccentric art world figures could also have motive for the act, and as Maggie gets drawn into her own investigation of Lord’s disappearance, she’ll come to suspect all of those closest to her.

Review:

I found this mystery to be very slow paced and the main character very weak. Maggie is still hung up on her ex.  She is constantly talking about what could have been and how surprised she was by their separation.  Now her ex is with the artist Kim Lord whose exhibition of self portraits depicting herself as famous dead women is disturbing and once again exploiting these women whose lives were cut short. Maggie is jealous of Kim's relationship with her ex. 

When Kim doesn't show up for her opening all signs point to the boyfriend being the culprit. As Maggie gets drawn into the mystery of what happened to Kim the art world takes center stage.  With the twisted way in which art is deemed worthy and priced. I had a hard time caring and found myself distracted while listening to this book. However at the end Maggie does seem to come to some conclusions about her life and seems more in control.  There is a 2nd book in this series that I may give a go and hope that it is better than this one. 

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