Meredith Cole, Dead in the Water

Dead in the Water

Meredith Cole

Minotaur, May 11 2010, $24.99

ISBN: 9780312625047

She is an artist to the depth of her soul, taking first class photographs that she hopes will give her the name recognition she needs to make a living doing what she loves and enabling her to quit her day job. Lydia Mackenzie works in the office of private investigators Leo and Frankie D'Angelo. In her free time she takes photos of prostitutes working the waterfront capturing their emotions on film.

Her favorite model is Gloria; the hooker calls Lydia for help, but her answering machine picks up the plea. At the park in Williamsburg Lydia finds Gloria's body, an obvious homicide victim. Feeling guilty that she failed to take the call, Lydia investigates. Over the next few days more prostitutes are murdered and a husband to a D'Angelos cousin. It is as if a Jack the Ripper was working Brooklyn. Lydia continues to dig but soon finds herself in danger from the last person she would suspect as she thought that gentle individual would not hurt a fly.

Dead in the Water looks deeply into the free trade life of prostitution especially their private side and how they cope with their pimps who demand they make money for or else. It is heartwarming though doubtful to watch the hookers gather together as a group The Golden Horseshoe to watch each other's back. The heroine has some investigative skills and a desire for justice, which in combo leaves her vulnerable from a serial killer who will not mind at all adding an obit on a wannabe photographer.

Harriet Klausner