In Lesson in Red, Maggie Richter, who went from writer to researcher in Maria Hammel’s 2018 novel Still Lives, returns to Los Angeles to immerse herself in the death of a promising artist at a local art school. But you don’t have to read “Still Lives”, a selection from Reese’s Book Club. You can now delve into Counterpoint’s latest Hummel mystery.

“I love the Mystery series. As I continue to walk, grow and change with them, I can learn more about the characters, ”writer Hummel said over the phone from Vermont. “For Maggie, that was definitely a goal.”

Hummel also wanted to “change the lens” in his second Maggie Richter mystery. Where “Still Lives” focuses on museums, “Leson in Red” caters for art schools and gallery exhibitions, and young artist Brenae Brasil’s tragedy highlights the privileges and sexual assault of the art world.

Hummel, a professor at the University of Vermont, wrote “Lesson in Red” during an audition with Brett Kavanaugh. She remembers watching the audience, looking out the campus office window, and noticing a young woman outside the green.

“I remember a lot the horror I felt as a college student, the different types of horror, and the number of nights I spent so much that I felt like I had a lot of silver. “It’s now,” she recalls. “It was in my head, this national problem was clearly going on, and then my own memory continued.”

“I also wanted to write about mentoring in art history,” she continues. “For women, it’s often difficult to have a relationship as a male muse and want to be your own artist, but it’s very difficult to get out of other roles. And take it seriously. “

She turns these very contemporary feminist themes into a story that still fits into the tradition of Black Los Angeles. Hummel, who lived in Los Angeles from 2001 to 2005, says he enjoyed reading Raymond Chandler’s novels when he first moved to Los Angeles. “I have always been fascinated by such a stylized world of black,” she says. Still, she adds, “I felt I needed a more modern lens for some of the same issues that lived in some of her books.”

Set in 2003, Hummel portrays LA, where downtown is starting to flourish as the 21st cultural hub and the art world is flourishing. This setting is also consistent with the artist’s own stay in the city, who worked as a writer at the Museum of Contemporary Art. She explains that it is an interesting time for discussions on the future of artistic institutions. “At the same time, money was really pouring into the contemporary art market,” she says. All of this helps shape novels where class privileges also affect the status of the artist.

“Some artists were relatively young and already expensive,” Hummel recalls when observing the art world. “But there were a lot of people who were really having a hard time doing something and wanted someone to see their slides.”

Hummel reflected on the cost of becoming an artist. Maintaining studio space and inventory can be costly. “If you don’t get the good reputation in high school, it will be really difficult,” she says. It’s like watching the play “The Prince and the Poor” every now and then, with one artist making a lot of money and another spending months on something that might be great but not noticed. ..

“There are many MFA programs and many graduates each year. There really is no room for everyone to be successful. Hummel said: “However, it is a sort of feudal system that promotes ambition.” Declared.

However, the location of “Lesson in Red” is fictitious. “I didn’t want anyone to draw the exact line between what I wrote in the book and what is downtown,” says Hummel. In addition, the issues addressed in the novel are systematic, and sexual assault on campus is certainly not unique to art schools. Hummel points out that just a week before the interview, students from the University of Vermont were gathering to protest the school’s response to the sexual assault case.

For readers obsessed with the mysteries of Hummel’s art world, there may be even more mysteries. Hummel says he currently has a third book, the “Skeleton”.