Posed For Murder
By Meredith Cole
Minotaur Books, $24.95
ISBN: 978-0312378561

It should have been an evening of triumph for photographer Lydia McKenzie, who was debuting her collection five years in the making of photos featuring models reenacting unsolved murders. Instead, her drunken gallery manager forced her to pay for promotional items and even neglected to provide drinks for the jaded New York crowd. Those are minor complications though compared to the arrival of two NYPD detectives with the news that one of the models featured in Lydia's photos was just discovered murdered and they are very interested in learning why the woman was photographed as a corpse on the exhibit’s invitations.

Lydia created her arguably morbid collection after becoming fascinated by Lost Girls, a book documenting the tragic unsolved murders of unidentified young women in Williamsburg. After also being touched by murder when a child, Lydia hopes that her photographs will bring awareness to the crimes and perhaps lead to the identification of the women and bring resolutions to their families. Now, Lydia is terrified that her friends who posed for the photos may be targets for the same murderer who inspired them, especially when another model is murdered and a third goes missing.

With amateur detectives, the major obstacle is creating a justification for them to believe that they are as capable as – if not more than – the police to investigate. Cole overcomes this by having Lydia work as the Girl Friday for a pair of very Italian private investigator brothers. However, a comedic side plot that has their restaurant-owning mother paying Lydia to spy one of her son's girlfriends seems a distraction and inserted only to add some uncomfortable humor. The ending unfortunately also feels rushed and the solution seems forced and disjointed from the rest of the novel.

The winner of St Martin’s Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery Novel, Meredith Cole is an experienced film director and screenwriter who was waylaid by pregnancy. What Cole excels at is the depiction of New York City and the artists' community. She vividly describes how the artists' former factory lofts of Williamsburg and the largely Polish ethnic Greenpoint have become high-priced condos and businesses and she documents the dilemma of artists who consider themselves so artistic that no one understands – or buys - them. Even Lydia succumbs to snobbery against artists who have "sold out" to cater to tourists and the commercial sectors. There is of course a romantic element tossed in with the swarthy attractive detective, but it’s the vulnerable Lydia and the world of New York artists that make this an enjoyable read.

Review by CINDY CHOW

©2009 Lorie Ham. All rights reserved.