Photo Shoot: A Will Porter Mystery

When ex-crime scene photographer Will Porter is asked to shoot a wedding, he%E2%80%99s enticed by the large commission and takes the job. However, Will soon discovers that this isn%E2%80%99t a typical ceremony: Joey, the groom, is the son of a Brooklyn, N.Y., mob boss, and Laura Lee, the bride, is the heir to a Southern fortune. Neither family supports the marriage, and hits have been ordered against both bride and groom. Barth%E2%80%99s characters are pure stereotypes: the well-armed men are stupidly violent and the women are sex objects. When first meeting the bride and maid of honor, Will remarks, %E2%80%9CI consider Gina built for comfort, Laura Lee was definitely built for speed.%E2%80%9D Lily, a sexually precocious teenager, was molested by her father when she was 11, but her family explains that she %E2%80%9Cenjoyed it%E2%80%9D and blame her for the nearly constant aggressive male attention she receives. Despite Will being a self-described pudgy, balding 60-year-old, young, attractive women throw themselves at him. Barth%E2%80%99s novel is at best a dull mystery and at worst offensive and distasteful.