OCTOBER 2019 - AudioFile
Listeners will be blown away by narrator Susan Bennett as they are transported to 1960s Baltimore in this fresh mystery. Bennett expertly transitions between Madeline Schwartz, Cleo Sherwood, and a wide range of supporting characters. Maddie, a pampered former housewife, has left her husband to chase a life of meaning. She’s working as a reporter when the body of Cleo, a young black woman, is found in a city park fountain. Maddie tries to tell Cleo's story and connect it to others who are dismissed, overlooked, and forgotten by society. Bennett creates an authentic identity for each character and sets a pace that pulls listeners in and holds on tight. The story is incredibly relevant as race, gender, violence, and socioeconomics are integral parts of understanding the characters and their motivations. K.S.M. 2020 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
People
A cavalcade of narratorsincluding Cleo’s ghost, who wants Maddie to stop poking into her worldand Lippman’s expert storytelling bring the city’s tensions wondrously to life.
the Oprah Magazine O
Praise for Sunburn: “Fast-paced and unpredictable, Sunburn is a smart, sly riff on love in a world of trouble that’s puzzling until the very last piece falls into place.
Popsugar
...as much a mystery as it is a stylized look at life in 1966 Baltimore. Another must read from Lippman.
Booklist (starred review)
Riveting…This is a superb character study, a terrific newspaper novel, and a fascinating look at urban life and racial discrimination in the ’60s…Lippman’s critical acclaim and sales figures continue to climb, and this genre-crossing thriller will extend her reach still further.
Associated Press
Elegantly written, the novel moves with an eye to how people adapt to changes in culture, or maybe how an evolving culture causes shifts in people...Lippman again proves she’s a sharp observer of people, with an affinity for shaping complicated people in a refined plot.
Vanity Fair
[Lippman] tells a classic mystery through the prism of many characters, all feeling the reverberations of dawning feminism and racial tension in civil-rights-era Baltimore...Lady in the Lake is aching, thoughtful, and compulsively readable.
Stephen King
...the closest writer America has to Ruth Rendell.... What makes this book special, even extraordinary, is that the crossword puzzle aspect is secondary...[Lady in the Lake] reflects the gulf which then existed between what women were expected to be and what they aspired to be.
Gillian Flynn
Praise for Sunburn: “Every time Laura Lippman comes out with a new book, I get chills because I know I am back in the hands of the master...Sunburn is her dark, gleaming noir gem. Read it.
Washington Post
Inspired by the unsolved death of Shirley Parker... Lippman’s ambitious novel weaves some 20 points of view into a seamless, vivid whole. The novel demonstrates that Lippman, a former Baltimore Sun reporter, is both a skilled journalist and a masterful novelist.
Wall Street Journal
Baltimore in the mid-1960s is the setting of Lady in the Lake, the latest novel from the ever impressive Laura Lippman...Lippman’s book is revelatory, too, in showing the personal and professional costs to others—friends, loved ones, sources, witnesses—of Maddie’s single-minded quest for achievement and recognition.
Anna Quindlen
Don’t miss this novel.
Entertainment Weekly
[Lippman] only seems to be getting better.
O: the Oprah Magazine
Praise for Sunburn: “Fast-paced and unpredictable, Sunburn is a smart, sly riff on love in a world of trouble that’s puzzling until the very last piece falls into place.
Washington Post
Inspired by the unsolved death of Shirley Parker... Lippman’s ambitious novel weaves some 20 points of view into a seamless, vivid whole. The novel demonstrates that Lippman, a former Baltimore Sun reporter, is both a skilled journalist and a masterful novelist.
Wall Street Journal
Baltimore in the mid-1960s is the setting of Lady in the Lake, the latest novel from the ever impressive Laura Lippman...Lippman’s book is revelatory, too, in showing the personal and professional costs to others—friends, loved ones, sources, witnesses—of Maddie’s single-minded quest for achievement and recognition.
OCTOBER 2019 - AudioFile
Listeners will be blown away by narrator Susan Bennett as they are transported to 1960s Baltimore in this fresh mystery. Bennett expertly transitions between Madeline Schwartz, Cleo Sherwood, and a wide range of supporting characters. Maddie, a pampered former housewife, has left her husband to chase a life of meaning. She’s working as a reporter when the body of Cleo, a young black woman, is found in a city park fountain. Maddie tries to tell Cleo's story and connect it to others who are dismissed, overlooked, and forgotten by society. Bennett creates an authentic identity for each character and sets a pace that pulls listeners in and holds on tight. The story is incredibly relevant as race, gender, violence, and socioeconomics are integral parts of understanding the characters and their motivations. K.S.M. 2020 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine