Lippman, a Baltimore resident and former Baltimore Sun reporter, takes her time to paint a full picture of her city, and her evident pleasure in doing so is infectious. We hear from Tessie Fine’s presumed murderer, from Tessie herself (in her last moments), from an obliviously racist cop, a rising baseball star, and an experienced female reporter used to working on her copy in the women’s bathroom. She does so, mainly, by bringing to life a large cast of voices, including Cleo’s, who’s speaking from beyond the grave – and isn’t particularly pleased by Maddie’s efforts to uncover the truth behind her disappearance. While Maddie’s metamorphosis from a skilled–but–bored housewife to a rookie reporter is the beating heart of Lady in the Lake, Lippman invites us, time and time again, to see Maddie’s journey as one element of a larger picture – one moving part in Baltimore’s complex dynamics. About three months later, in September, Esther Lebowitz, an 11-year-old Jewish girl, was beaten to death inside a fish store, in a gruesome, traumatising killing that profoundly impacted Baltimore’s Jewish community. In June of that year, the body of Shirley Lee Wigeon Parker, a black 35-year-old divorcee, was found in a fountain in one of the city’s parks. The story told in Lady in the Lake began, in many ways, five decades before the book’s release, in 1969. This vivid historical novel inspired by two real deaths (one solved, one unsolved) confirms Lippman’s status as one of the most skilled and prolific authors of American crime fiction – and makes for a fascinating, unforgiving dive into Sixties Baltimore.
Her new release, Lady in the Lake, is deserving of the same praise, and more. In 2018, Laura Lippman released Sunburn, a tantalising thriller hailed as a “page-turning pleasure”, “handled with masterly flair”, and “lethally seductive”.
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