Shot in Detroit

Violet Hart is a photographer whose will to succeed is tested when the opportunity to make it through questionable activity arises. Violet’s previous attempts to leave the downtrodden city of Detroit and strike out in a new place has gone awry. She always returns to cobble out a life for herself in the oddly womblike interiors of Detroit. Nearing forty, she’s keenly aware that the time for artistic recognition is running out. She’s further handicapped by her loner instincts. Roaming the streets of Detroit, her personal and professional failure is a good match for the city’s physical decline.

Suddenly an opportunity is handed to her: Her current lover, a Detroit mortician, needs a photograph of a body. She takes the picture. It’s an artistic success and she’s energized by the subject matter. She’s discovered an edgy focus for her work and persuades Bill to allow her to take pictures of some of his other clients,” eventually settling on photographing young, black men.

Bill is locally famous for dressing his bodies in a flamboyant manner and this heightens the artistry in Violet’s photographs. Although Bill has reservations, he agrees to allow her photography, providing the families of the departed” agree to it. Most do, surprisingly, and Violet’s new portfolio is launched. Each photograph is stronger than the one before it as she learns how to take pictures of the dead.

Violet takes her portfolio to a gallery and quickly strikes a deal. She agrees to produce a dozen pictures with the deadline only a few months away. But Violet convinces the gallery owner she can meet the date because dead bodies are commonplace in Detroit. And she has access to the city’s most prominent mortician.

These demands soon place Violet in the position of having to strain to meet her quota. She haunts Bill’s prep room, looking for suitable subjects. Bill becomes increasingly distressed at acting as a procurer for Violet’s obsession. Her new relationship with a bi-polar outsider artist draws her into a murder investigation and gang activity, raising the radar of the local police.

As time runs out, how will Violet come up with enough photographs and what will this obsession do to her? And can she succeed as an artist without losing her soul or her life in the process? A riveting novel of psychological suspense, Patricia Abbott continues to cement herself as one of our very best writers of the darkness that lies within the human heart.

Patricia Abbott is the author of more than 100 stories in print, online, and in various anthologies, includingNeedle Mag, The Thrilling Detective, Plots With Guns, Spinetingler, and ThugLit. In 2009 she won a Derringer Award for her story My Hero. She is the author of two ebooks of stories:Monkey Justice and Home Invasion (through Snubnose Press). Her debut novel,Concrete Angel, was released by Polis Books in summer 2015. She is the coeditor ofDiscount Noir (Unteed Reads). She makes her home in Detroit. Follow her on Twitter at @pattinaseabbott.