Object Lessons

by Stephanie Kane

Can little crimes inspire big ones? When Adam and Eve Castle bring their miniature dioramas to Denver to train cops in crime-scene investigation, a string of baffling murders follows. Called in to solve the crimes depicted in the dioramas, paintings conservator Lily Sparks discerns connections between them and the real murders which draw her into the orbit of a killer intent on going from master of a tiny universe to playing God.
Each diorama parallels a real crime. But why is the killer reenacting the diorama murders on a life-sized stage? Are the dioramas roadmaps for the crimes, or are the victims being targeted based on the homes and lifestyles the dioramas represent? To catch the killer, Lily must now embark on a deadly new game of house played by a psychopath's rules.

212 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2021

About the author

Stephanie Kane is a lawyer and award-winning author of seven crime novels. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she came to Colorado as a freshman at CU. A second-degree black belt, she owned and ran a karate studio in Boulder. After becoming a corporate partner at a top Denver law firm, she quit to do criminal defense work. She lives in Denver with her husband and two black cats.

Stephanie’s legal thrillers starring defense lawyer Jackie Flowers have won the Colorado Book Award for Mystery and two Colorado Authors League Awards for Genre Fiction. She belongs to Mystery Writers of America, Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers and the Colorado Authors League.

Reviews

[Melissa (Nissa_the.bookworm) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to the publishers at Cold Hard Press for sending me a copy of Object Lessons!

Object Lessons by Stephanie Kane is the third book in the Lily Sparks series. Seeing as I haven’t read her previous books, I went in a bit blind, but this can be read as a stand-alone as well. Object Lessons reminded me of an Agatha Christie novel, modernized.

Object Lessons revolves around crime scene dioramas used as training tools for police departments around the country. Lily Sparks, once a lawyer, now an art conservator, has an eye for murder and is the only one who figured out whodunnit in every diorama presented by Adam and Eve Castle. But then real murders start happening that seem to mirror the tiny scenes. Is someone killing to match the dioramas, or is something more sinister at play? Lily, along with her boyfriend of 12 years, Paul, a former FBI agent, are on the case!

I really enjoyed this whodunnit! It was different than other mysteries I’ve read in that it felt more like a screenplay. Object Lessons would make an excellent movie or mini series! I did get confused a few times while reading, which is why I believe this would be excellent acted out. The way the characters speak is perfect for the screen. I’m definitely going to look into her two previous Lily Sparks books now!

Object Lessons releases October 15th! Preorder yours today!

[Michelle McFarland · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book would be perfect for my true crime lovers! When murders start to accrue strangely similar to crime scene dioramas. Only lily seems to notice but she’s racing against time to catch the killer before he does it again.⁣
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I really enjoyed this novel and was hooked by the true crime aspect and the crime scene dioramas. This novel is whodunnit novel that will keep you hooked and entertained! ⁣

[Jessica Higgins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Readers who love murder mysteries that are linked to other crimes will love this!

Adam and Eve Castle have a business where they create dioramas to train police officers on different crime scenes. To some, it is just a scene of a crime with no real effect. But to art conservator Lily Sparks, she sees connections that others don’t and is able to quickly come to conclusions that even the Castles sometimes miss. When murders start to happen that mimic the dioramas, Lily quickly puts the two together and must work to convince others of the connections, even if it means she must stop them herself.

Initially, I thought this book was going to be based on true crime events, but after diving in, I quickly realized it was true crime based on the dioramas. My biggest drawback on this was reading it as a standalone. It is written as a continuation of characters that have been developed previously and as a reader, I missed some back story that I felt was important. The scenes were written so that they were pretty interesting, but sometimes it was a little disjointed between scenes. I think I would have enjoyed it more had I started from the beginning, especially to understand Lily and Paul’s relationship better.

There is quite a bit of foul language and some implied sex throughout, but nothing graphic. Even so, I still recommend this for mature audiences.

I received a complimentary copy of this title from the publisher. The views and opinions expressed within are my own.

[Stephanie Swalls · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the concept of this book, but I kept getting confused and had a difficult time keeping up on who was who and what was going on. I don't know if it was the excess dialogue between all the different characters or what, but I do think in the end the book came together within the last 10 Chapters. All in all it kind of made me want to re-read the first portion of the book so I could really let it all sink in better.
Also, I did not know this was a series and maybe if I read the first books this would have pulled and tied everything together for me way better.