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Author: Laura Lippman
Genre: Historical Fiction/Crime
Publisher: William Morrow
Published: July 23, 2019
Book Description: In 1966, Baltimore is a city of secrets that everyone seems to know—everyone, that is, except Madeline “Maddie” Schwartz. Last year, she was a happy, even pampered housewife. This year, she’s bolted from her marriage of almost twenty years, determined to make good on her youthful ambitions to live a passionate, meaningful life.
Maddie wants to matter, to leave her mark on a swiftly changing world. Drawing on her own secrets, she helps Baltimore police find a murdered girl—assistance that leads to a job at the city’s afternoon newspaper, the Star. Working at the newspaper offers Maddie the opportunity to make her name, and she has found just the story to do it: a missing woman whose body was discovered in the fountain of a city park lake.
Cleo Sherwood was a young black woman who liked to have a good time. No one seems to know or care why she was killed except Maddie—and the dead woman herself. Maddie’s going to find the truth about Cleo’s life and death. Cleo’s ghost, privy to Maddie’s poking and prying, wants to be left alone.
Maddie’s investigation brings her into contact with people that used to be on the periphery of her life—a jewelry store clerk, a waitress, a rising star on the Baltimore Orioles, a patrol cop, a hardened female reporter, a lonely man in a movie theater. But for all her ambition and drive, Maddie often fails to see the people right in front of her. Her inability to look beyond her own needs will lead to tragedy and turmoil for all sorts of people—including the man who shares her bed, a black police officer who cares for Maddie more than she knows.
Rating: 4 Stars
Review: Laura Lippman does it again. She has managed to include so many elements in this story, without taking away anything from the meat of this tale. The story begins with Maddie who is hosting a dinner party for her neighbors and her husband’s new friend who just happens to be her prom date from High School. Fast forward she leaves her husband in 1966, not for the prom date, but for the prospect of what her life could be. Lippman than takes us a journey that was unique and so much fun to read.
The story is of Maddie’s journey, her first job, a romance with a black man which is absolutely illegal at the time, and a murder. Intertwined, Lippman brings in many characters stories or vignettes that absolutely tell the story of Baltimore and the 1960’s. Also you have the voice of the woman who has been murdered.
Lady in the Lake was intense, and will keep you on the edge of you seat the entire time. How Lippman adds so much detail without crowding the plot is amazing. This is a must read for every Lippman fan and anybody who likes a good mystery.
Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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