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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
This was ok, but I knew how it was going to play out before I was 20 pages in. I agree with one of the reviewers who felt Monaghan's self doubt about her mothering skills, etc.was excessive. That being said, an average Laura Lippman book is better than three-quarters of a lot of the dreck out these days.
I was disappointed with 11, but Lippman won me over again. I absolutely love the way that motherhood is thematically integrated into the book. Lippman is so sensitive, and makes me want to be a better, less judgmental person. Top of her game.
This might be my favorite in this series. I would have liked more Crow, but the book was great.
Time jump as Carla Scout is now a strong willed 3 year old making Tess question how to be a 'good' mother while balancing her not-so-usual work life especially as she struggles in the face of Crow's seeming ease as a parent.
While I'm glad Lippman takes on exploring the guilt that mothers have when it's such hard work and there's such great expectations on women to do it all (and here she shows this through several different women in quite different circumstances, which is good), the juxtaposition with a VERY extreme case of 'bad' mothering is a bit too obvious/on the nose. Especially when the driver of the story is such a polarising character, a charismatic woman, once a high-powered lawyer who was found not-guilty of murdering her baby daughter by 'cooking' her alive in a hot car due to mental insanity, who returns as a manipulative would-be documentary maker of her reunion with the surviving teen daughters she hasn't seen in 10 years. The resolution of the mystery is too muddy and messy and I think it undoes some of the good work in conveying the complexity of being a mother.
Plus I got very mad at Tyner in this one - at least he gets called out on it...but not by Kitty or Tess which I really feel was warranted. Also, I was a bit sad about the reconfiguration of people in Tess' life - a) swapping out Mrs Blossom for a random guy named Sandy (who is great but...huh? where did he spring from??), and b) I had really liked in the previous books the call backs to the bigger web of characters who are part and parcel of Tess and Crow's life, so in the happy ending I really missed the presence (look, even a mention) of previously important characters like Jackie and her daughter, Uncle Spike, etc.
While I'm glad Lippman takes on exploring the guilt that mothers have when it's such hard work and there's such great expectations on women to do it all (and here she shows this through several different women in quite different circumstances, which is good), the juxtaposition with a VERY extreme case of 'bad' mothering is a bit too obvious/on the nose. Especially when the driver of the story is such a polarising character, a charismatic woman, once a high-powered lawyer who was found not-guilty of murdering her baby daughter by 'cooking' her alive in a hot car due to mental insanity, who returns as a manipulative would-be documentary maker of her reunion with the surviving teen daughters she hasn't seen in 10 years. The resolution of the mystery is too muddy and messy and I think it undoes some of the good work in conveying the complexity of being a mother.
Plus I got very mad at Tyner in this one - at least he gets called out on it...but not by Kitty or Tess which I really feel was warranted. Also, I was a bit sad about the reconfiguration of people in Tess' life - a) swapping out Mrs Blossom for a random guy named Sandy (who is great but...huh? where did he spring from??), and b) I had really liked in the previous books the call backs to the bigger web of characters who are part and parcel of Tess and Crow's life, so in the happy ending I really missed the presence (look, even a mention) of previously important characters like Jackie and her daughter, Uncle Spike, etc.
Some parts were a little upsetting, being a mom, but the story was a good one.
I love this series! I was so happy there was a new one.
Normally I love Laura Lippman's books, especially those featuring Tess Monahan. Maybe it was the subject, maybe it was the characters, but I was very disappointed in this one. So much so that that even Tess and Crow with their daughter Scout felt off to me and strangely lackluster. The main plot revolves around an unlikable woman who returns to Baltimore after living abroad for many years. She has hired a documentary maker to film her attempts to see her teenage daughters. And the reason she has been gone? She left her infant daughter to die in a car on a hot day.
I am glad the novella that preceded this book did not dissuade me from reading it. I have followed the Tess series from the beginning, and I am glad I stuck with it. I really enjoyed seeing how much Tess has grown over the series professionally and personally. I also enjoy how "human" she remains. She keenly aware of her shortcomings; she has doubts she sometimes does not want to acknowledge aloud; she continues to show herself loyal to her assignments even when the people requesting her services work her last nerve or misunderstand the responsibilities of a PI. I appreciated how accessible and relatable she remains. I also felt this novel did a much better job of presenting side stories about other characters than the novella. I would recommend reading this, and I would again encourage readers to enjoy the series from the beginning if interested.
Great mystery to get lost in on a cold Sunday morning. Lippmann's writing so clearly evokes Baltimore in many, many ways. This mystery involves all my favourite characters- Tess, Kitty, Tyner, and to a lesser extent, Crow. The mother daughter bond is tested, not only between Tess and Carla Scout, but as the centre point of the book. Good read.
mysterious
tense
medium-paced