Model Murders

Posed for Murder by Meredith Cole (F COL Main)

Reviewed by Jeanne

Lydia McKenzie is a young photographer in New York who has just landed her first one woman show at a local gallery, featuring her photographs of recreated murder scenes. The celebration is cut short when two homicide detectives show up: one of her models has been found murdered, positioned in exactly the same way as in the photograph. Now Lydia is determined to try to find the murderer and clear her name.

Posed for Murder was the winner of the Malice Domestic Award for best traditional first mystery. The writing flows well, without some of the awkward transitions of some first novels and has a well-constructed plot. The New York setting is not so much the impersonal big city as it the neighborhood aspect, where people still greet one another. Lydia is a sympathetic, believable character; Cole gives plausible reasons for why she would choose such a morbid topic for her exhibit, explaining Lydia’s views on forgotten victims. Lydia’s day job is at a little detective agency run by two brothers, doing the filing, billing, etc. The DeAngelos provide some levity and give the book a lot of color, especially Mama DeAngelo who bosses everyone about with food.

While some of Lydia’s artist friends aren’t fully developed as characters, Cole does a good job of explaining how the artists worked, the mechanics of a photo shoot, the motives behind artistic expression and the different mediums employed. The descriptions of the artwork were good, too-- she really conveyed a sense of the pieces and the feelings they evoked in a viewer. These sections were both interesting and informative and for a brief exciting moment made me want to try to do something artistic. Then I remembered the closet full of arts and crafts supplies in my den—do people still macramé?—and decided perhaps I should just continue to live vicariously.

Meredith Cole was raised in Charlottesville, Virginia and now lives in New York. Her background has been in film but if this book is any indication, she has a career as a mystery writer ahead. I think Cole is an author to watch.