LESSON IN RED

The untimely demise of a provocative young filmmaker consumes a museum copy editor in this sequel to Still Lives (2018).

After spending the summer in Vermont recovering from a run-in with a murderer, Rocque Museum copy editor Maggie Richter is ready to tell her friends and colleagues in Los Angeles that she isn’t coming back. Then her boss, Janis Rocque, emails with a tantalizing proposition. Several months ago, Brenae Brasil—a grad student at the prestigious Los Angeles Art College—shot herself. Janis claims she has inside knowledge that Brenae’s death was “more complicated than it seemed” and is willing to handsomely compensate Maggie—a former journalist—if she’ll investigate the school’s culture and use discretion in publishing her findings. Maggie returns to California, where she learns that Brenae sent Janis a copy of an unreleased movie titled Lesson in Red, which shows Brenae having coerced sex with an unidentified man. According to authorities, the work is one of two deleted from Brenae’s computer after she died but before her body was discovered. Determined to uncover the truth, Maggie infiltrates Brenae’s social circle and, with the help of special agent Ray Hendricks, starts digging. This novel might occasionally lose readers unfamiliar with the plot and key players from Still Lives. The story feels overstuffed and the denouement relies too heavily on coincidence, but Hummel delivers a searing indictment of the artistic community’s bias toward White men and the exploitations that follow.

A thoughtful thriller that shines a light into the art world’s dark corners.