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Final Frame opens with the kind of premise that the British psychological-mystery tradition does particularly well. A photographer has died, a posthumous show of her work is being mounted in a small London gallery, and a single image in the collection appears to document a murder that no one has reported. DI Mike Croft is called in.
Jane Adams uses the photography world with care. The technical questions (the analog vs digital provenance, the development chronology, the question of what the photographer might have known and when) are handled with patience. The investigation's emotional core is the relationship between Croft and the gallery's curator, which Adams develops without rushing.
The case resolves cleanly and the closing chapters are quietly affecting. Four stars. The Mike Croft series at its mid-90s peak.
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