Still Lives
Twelve shocking paintings. Eleven famous murders. One missing artist . . . and one woman driven to find her—this Reese’s Book Club x Hello Sunshine Selection is a “stunning achievement.” —Los Angeles Times
“It’s a thrilling mystery that will leave you wondering which characters you can and can’t trust . . . There’s a twist at the end that still keeps us up at night, it’s THAT good.” —Reese Witherspoon
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.
Set against a culture that often fetishizes violence, Still Lives is a page–turning exodus into the art world’s hall of mirrors, and one woman’s journey into the belly of an industry flooded with money and secrets.
A REESE’S BOOK CLUB x HELLO SUNSHINE Selection
A BOOK OF THE MONTH Selection
An Amazon Best Mystery/Thriller of the Year
1 of 22 New Books to Read This Summer (TIME)
1 of 20 New Books to Read in June (Entertainment Weekly)
1 of 5 Thrillers & Mysteries That Made Me Fall in Love with the Genre Again (Bustle)
1 of 30 Exciting New Books to Add to Your Summer Reading List (Buzzfeed)
1 of 9 New Books to Read this Month (The Guardian)
1 of 10 Books to Read in June (BBC Culture)
1 of the Best Summer Beach Reads of 2018 (The Daily Beast)
1 of 10 Crime Books to Read in June (CrimeReads)
1 of the Best Books of June 2018 (Refinery29)
1 of 25 New Thrillers You Need to Have on Your Radar This Summer (PopSugar)
1 of 9 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in June (PureWow)
1 of 15 Books Coming Out . . . That You Don’t Want to Miss (HelloGiggles)
A Best New Book of June (Chicago Review of Books)
1 of 22 Books You Must Get Your Hands on this June (Women.com)
1 of 50 New Book Suggestions to Wow Your Book Club (PopSugar)
1 of My Top 5 Most Anticipated Reads of 2018 (PatienceRandle.com)
1 of 20 Favorite Reads of June 2018 (Read It Forward)
1 of Summer’s Most Anticipated Crime, Mystery, and Thrillers (CrimeReads)
A Perfect Book to Help You While Away the Lazy, Hazy Days of Summer (Watertown Daily Times)
Praise for Still Lives
“[A] mysterious page turner.” —TIME, 1 of 22 New Books to Read This Summer
“Mystery and murder cloud this feminist story set in the heart of Los Angeles’ art scene. When an avant–garde artist goes missing on the day her groundbreaking exhibition opens, the story spins out in many provocative directions.” —Entertainment Weekly, 1 of 20 New Books to Read in June
“A suspenseful, splashy story about fame, sex, and how our culture views women’s bodies . . . I also loved that it tackled the sticky subject of how women are portrayed in art, culture, and the media—and the consequences of those portrayals. This is a thrilling book, and a much–needed one. Read it and you’ll see what I mean.” —Book of the Month
“[A] splendid art–world thriller . . . Ms. Hummel captures characters in a single stroke . . . Having herself worked in a museum, she speaks with authority of that sealed world . . . Still Lives is both savvy and lyrical—the perfect beach read for either coast.” —The Wall Street Journal
“This is not only a satisfying mystery, but also an ambitious, intelligent and often uncomfortable study of gender, violence and art.” —The Guardian
“Reese Witherspoon’s new book club pick is a dark, feminist thriller, and you’re not going to want to miss it.” —Bustle