WHAT MEETS THE EYE

An LA private eye hired to look more closely into an artist’s suicide unearths a host of felons and felonies along the way.

Milt Starling can’t believe that anyone as successful as his daughter, star painter Margot Starling, would have hanged herself six months ago. Since the LAPD has all but closed the case, he’s reduced to trawling for a shamus willing to reopen it. Kate Myles, the one who takes on the job, is in rough shape. Badly injured by a car driven by a criminal she was pursuing while she served on the force, she’s become dependent on painkillers, losing her job, her marriage, and her 7-year-old daughter in the process—and although she’s no longer hooked, she’s still hurting. Despite the inconclusive forensic evidence about the manner of Margot’s death, Kate’s ex-partner, Det. Ron Bennett, and his colleagues are more interested in the possibility that the Starling canvases offered for sale by nothingburger gallery owner Aksel Berkland are forgeries. Setting aside the forgery angle to concentrate on Margot’s death, Kate discovers that she collected lovers like pennies and blackmailed them on the way out the door. The recent demise of Jason Martinez, another artist whose work has popped up in Berkland’s gallery, makes Kate wonder if the two deaths aren’t connected to a more extensive forgery ring, a suspicion that leads her to a perilous fling with someone who may be connected to the Russian mob. First-timer Kenna supplies the backstories of the victim and her would-be avenger through a tangled web of flashbacks that are more distracting than enlightening, but the power of the story still shines through the haze.

A righteous, painful debut. More, please, but lighter on the flashbacks.