Synopsis
A new thriller again featuring colorblind photographer Kay Farrow as she probes a mysterious death in San Francisco's Mission District. When distinguished photojournalist Maddy Yamada is struck by a motorcyclist at two in the morning in a seedy area far from her Marina apartment, Kay Farrow's grief is tempered by suspicion. What could have drawn the reclusive Maddy so far from home at such an hour? Kay believes Maddy's work-in-progress - blurry, abstract images uncharacteristic of a woman famous for her unsparing clarity of vision - holds elusive clues, clues Kay is determined to decipher. Tracing old photographs and undeveloped film discovered in one of Maddy's cameras, Kay begins to bring into focus Maddy's activities at the time of her death. Lurking in her path is a netherworld of decadence and evil - and evidence that Maddy's death was no accident.
Marilyn Stasio
In the inverted imagery of this strange world, the blacker it gets, the lovelier it looks. -- NY Times Book Review