#BlogTour: Still Lives by Maria Hummel @MariaHummel2 @ellakroftpatel @QuercusBooks #StillLives #5Stars

Book Synopsis:

Kim Lord’s face looked back at me, disguised in paint and the features of a murdered woman.

Revered artist Kim Lord is about to unveil her most shocking show yet: Still Lives, a series of self-portraits in which she impersonates the female victims of America’s most famous homicides, from Nicole Brown Simpson to the Black Dahlia.

As celebrities and rich patrons pour into L.A.’s Rocque Museum for the opening night, the attendees wait eagerly for Kim’s arrival. All except Maggie Richter, museum editor and ex-girlfriend of Greg Shaw Ferguson, Kim’s new boyfriend. But Kim never shows up to her party and the crowd’s impatience slowly turns to unease.

When Greg is arrested on suspicion of murder, it seems that life is imitating art. Has Kim suffered the same fate as the women in her paintings? As Maggie is drawn into an investigation of her own, she uncovers dark and deadly truths that will change her life forever…

Perfect for fans of Perfect for fans of Gone Girl, Sharp Objects and Big Little Lies. 

Still Lives is available in all formats now, purchase your copy here.

My Review:

Still lives is a brilliant book that is guaranteed to keep you up at night with its creepy, thrilling storyline!

Firstly I loved the setting of the book and the fabulous descriptions of the glamorous art world that Maggie works in.  The ideas that some of the designers come up with for the expeditions was fascinating to read about and I enjoyed trying to imagine them in my mind.  The setting for the Kim Lord expedition was an interesting one with the gritty street setting complimenting the macabre paintings nicely.

My favourite character was Maggie as I felt she seemed very normal and wasn’t full of herself like some of the other people she worked with.  The descriptions of her normal everyday life and her wish to just go home to read her book made me warm to her immediately as that is my perfect evening too.  I also felt a lot of sympathy for her regarding her ex Greg as she obviously still has feelings for him.

The murders mentioned in the book are real ones and some of the pictures used as inspiration for the paintings can be found on line which added a chilling, macabre feeling to the story.  It also helped me envision the paintings better and get a feeling for the impact they would have had on people viewing them.

The story is a bit of a slow burn but the creepy, unsettling feeling slowly increases until the book is very hard to put down.  I found I enjoyed the build up as it gave me more of an insight into the characters and I liked watching the investigation unfolding.

My only slight problem with the book was that there were a lot of characters introduced quite quickly which was hard to keep track of, especially regarding what their roles were in the art gallery . I found myself flipping back the pages a few times to check who they were. This didn’t stop my enjoyment of the book but i did feel it could have done with a character list at the front that readers could refer to.

This is the author’s first thriller and the first book that I have read by her. I definitely will look forward to reading more from her in the future.  This book was recently included as a pick in Reese Witherspoon’s book club and I do think it would make a fantastic book club book as there is lots to discuss.

Huge thanks to Ella from Quercus publishers for my copy of this book and for inviting me onto the blog tour.  If you like chilling, unsettling and addictive thrillers then you’ll love this book.

About The Author:

Maria Hummel is the author of Still Lives, a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick, a Book of the Month Club pick, and top new summer read byTime. She has also published the novelMotherland, a SF Chronicle Book of the Year; and the poetry collection  House and Fire, winner of the APR/Honickman prize.

She worked as a writer/editor at MOCA in Los Angeles, then received a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University and taught there for many years. She is currently an assistant professor at the University of Vermont, and lives in Vermont with her husband and sons.

(Author picture and bio taken from the Author’s website)