An Image of Death, Libby Fischer Hellmann, Poisoned Pen Press, $24.95.
Hellman is excellent at taking a remarkable event - the discovery of a long lost relative, for example - and writing about it so that it enters the realm of the ordinary and believable. As Ellie is meeting this man, you as the reader are distracted by the same things Ellie is - what is David up to? Any woman who has ever had a date will recognize the tone in David's messages and conversations enough to have a sinking feeling about Ellie's romance.
And Hellmann does the same with the dead woman - by carefully backtracking through this woman's life, you, as reader, come to care for her, making the end we already know about more horrible. There's some fascinating journeys in this book that take you to Russia and all over Europe with the diamond trade - and into the emotional life of this foreign woman that makes her not foreign, just a woman. This is good stuff, and Hellman is a deft and surprising writer who is becoming a solid guarantee of an enjoyable read.
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