Maquette for Murder (Martha Patterson Mysteries) - Tapa dura

Martha Patterson, a retired New York attorney, keeps her brain from turning to Jell-O by providing pro bono legal advice to the needy and by occasionally acting as a modest patron of the arts. When her accountant becomes interested in the work of Hannah Gold, a sculptor friend of Martha's, Martha brings him to Hannah's studio in the emerging artists' enclave of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to a party celebrating Hannah's completion of a maquette, a small-scale model of a large piece of art, that she is entering in a nation-wide competition.
Late that night, after the party is over, a call from Hannah wakes Martha. Hannah, sounding disoriented, is trying to reach the police. Martha calls the police herself, then hurries back to Hannah's studio, where she finds a police investigation in progress. The maquette has been destroyed, the "beautiful young man" who is Hannah's new assistant is lying dead on the floor, and Hannah, unconscious from a blow to the head, has been rushed to the hospital.
Martha begins her own investigation when a cancer patient who lives near Hannah consults her for advice about a mysterious sighting in the night. The investigation leads to a small-time art school in Philadelphia, into the sad past of a dead young woman, and finally to a perilous encounter on a crowded subway platform.

Gretchen Sprague was a legal services lawyer in Brooklyn, New York, for eleven years. She retired to the Hudson Highlands to write the Martha Patterson mysteries. Sprague died in 2003.