Unlike most of the books I review, The Photographer by Mary Dixie Carter is not genre fiction of any kind. Not exactly a mystery, not quite a thriller, this is a mainstream story that has the vibe of a thriller with an unreliable first-person narrator. It grabbed my attention from the first paragraph and never let go.

The protagonist of The Photographer is — no surprise here — a photographer. In particular, she specializes in photographing children’s parties. Taking pictures of her clients’ lives is her job, her obsession, and also a metaphor. Even her name, Delta Dawn, tells you something.

Something.

But I wasn’t sure what. So of course I had to google it, and I discovered that it’s the title of a song written by Larry Collins and Alex Harvey, neither of whom I had heard of, and performed by Bette Midler, Tanya Tucker, and Helen Reddy, all of whom I have actually heard of. Also performed by Dianne Davidson (no relation), whom I have not heard of. I’m not going to tell you how this song is relevant to the book — not because I’m keeping you in suspense nor because it would be a spoiler, but because I simply don’t know how it is relevant to the book. But I’m sure it is.

This puzzle didn’t bother me too much, since I found the rest of the story so interesting that I just kept reading. Ultimately — and this is not a spoiler — we’re getting a glimpse into a world of well-to-do Jewish New Yorkers and a different world of a young woman who uses photography to get into it. I can’t really tell you more or I would be committing spoilers, so let me just reiterate that I couldn’t put it down. YMMV, of course. I will close by quoting a page in the second chapter:

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