Update to EVERY SECRET THING (2003)

Soon to be a motion picture!

And today word comes that the movie of Laura Lippman's book Every Secret Thing is finally coming to fruition. Check out the details HERE. Stars will include Dakota Fanning, Elizabeth Banks, and Diane Lane.

Read my review from a few years ago HERE.

Crooked Letter Crooked Letter (2010)

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter: A Novel by Tom Franklin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Author Laura Lippman was using the cover of Crooked Letter Crooked Letter as her facebook picture and that was enough for me. I ordered it from the library and when I got my hands on it, time disappeared.

I like mysteries but I especially love literate mysteries with beautiful writing, interesting characterizations, about places I've never lived, and intriguing stories. Tom Franklin's book has all the right ingredients.

Two boys spend a summer together although one is white and one is back in the rural Mississippi of the 70s. Years later the facts of what happened to them converge until the only solution is to finally tell the truth.



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Every Secret Thing (2003)

Every Secret Thing by Laura Lippman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Laura Lippman does something that not every author achieves. She gets just enough inside the minds of her characters to let us know that other people think differently than we do. Minette Walters and Ruth Rendell have done that for me as well. So what we are left with is maybe not evil intent but something that is even more insidious.

Although I automatically will pick up a title by Laura Lippman, the plot of this tale was fascinating. Two eleven year old girls have been incarcerated for kidnapping and killing a child. Seven years later, shortly after being released, a similar kidnapping occurs. Coincidence or connection?



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I'd Know You Anywhere (2010)

I'd Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Sometimes I like a book but am not particularly interested in reading other works by the author. That isn't the case with Laura Lippman. Her stories are suspenseful, insightful, and compelling.

In "I'd Know You Anywhere", Elizabeth receives a letter from the man who kidnapped her the summer she was fifteen. He is now on death row and wants to apologize. Elizabeth wants to protect her children from finding out about this episode in her life. And nothing is ever as simple as it seems.

Search for 'Laura Lippman' to see more of my posts. You can visit her site for more information. For example, did you know her mother was a librarian?!

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Movies from Books!

If you read and loved Olive Kitteridge, there are plans to make an HBO movie with Frances McDormand producing and playing Olive too! Take a look at the information at Deadline. McDormand is also involved with bringing Laura Lippman's Every Secret Thing to the screen.

Laura Lippman's I'd Know You Anywhere

I just put Laura Lippman's new book (released on August 17th) I'd Know You Anywhere on reserve at my local library. This is her sixteenth book and sixth stand-alone thriller and reviewers are suggesting that this may be her 'break-out' title.

Eliza Benedict is spending a quiet summer with her family when she receives a letter from the man who kidnapped and held her hostage when she was fifteen. He says he wants to make amends before he is executed, but what is really happening is far more complex. I suggest taking a deep breath before plunging into this story that Daphne Durham writes is "about fear, manipulation, and survival".

Life Sentences (2009)

Life Sentences: A Novel by Laura Lippman

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I've read one of the Tess Monahan crime books, but this is the first novel I've read by Laura Lippman.

Cassandra Fallows grew up in a racially diverse neighborhood in Baltimore. She has made her name as a writer of memoirs and is lost as to how to proceed with her work. Remembering a court case that has personal connections, she decides to investigate the story.

What follows is about our memories and what we perceive and what the facts may really be. It touches on the question of who's story is it? Who has the right to tell someone else's story and what if they get it wrong? Does it matter?


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Another Thing to Fall

I've been reading reviews of Laura Lippman's books since her first title Baltimore Blues (1997) but never one of the books themselves. Another Thing to Fall is number 15 in the mostly Tess Monaghan series and will be available next month. You can check out the individual titles at the author's official website. Her 2007 release What the Dead Know is the first of her books to make the New York Times bestseller list.

In Another Thing to Fall, Hollywood heads to the east coast to film a pilot for what could turn out to be a lucrative long term series for the city of Baltimore. Although Mann of Steel stars an almost has-been hero, it also has a hot young starlet who is getting lots of attention, but problems on the set could sink the project. Everyone seems to have something to hide. When Tess wanders onto a set disrupting shooting, she ends up being hired to keep an eye on Selene Waites, the Britney-like actress.

Just to make things more interesting, Ms. Lippman is married to David Simon, who is Executive Producer of the HBO series The Wire, which was filmed in Baltimore.