A short review (because that's all I can manage right now) of Laura Lippman's interesting new novel The Lady in the Lake. It's about a Jewish wife and mother in '60s Baltimore who, after a chance encounter, veers suddenly off the conventional path she had created for herself into a new world, with an impossible lover, an improbably career, and an uncertain future. She begins with the discovery of the body of a missing girl (having gone out searching mostly to get out of the house, it seems), then a new focus on the case of a murdered African-American woman whom nobody seems to care about except her parents. Along the way, she reveals the Baltimore (and the ountry) of an era emerging from the conventional 1950s into a new opennes to change in the 1960s. Lippman's previous novel was an exercise in neo-noir genre bending, and the new one is another change in direction for a writer who keeps coming up with interesting takes on the crime novel, expanding the scope of the genre beyond conventional exectations (much as her new heroine expands her own scope and life).
International Noir Fiction includes reviews and ideas on crime novels (mostly from outside the U.S.)
Saturday, July 27, 2019
Laura Lippman, The Lady in the Lake
A short review (because that's all I can manage right now) of Laura Lippman's interesting new novel The Lady in the Lake. It's about a Jewish wife and mother in '60s Baltimore who, after a chance encounter, veers suddenly off the conventional path she had created for herself into a new world, with an impossible lover, an improbably career, and an uncertain future. She begins with the discovery of the body of a missing girl (having gone out searching mostly to get out of the house, it seems), then a new focus on the case of a murdered African-American woman whom nobody seems to care about except her parents. Along the way, she reveals the Baltimore (and the ountry) of an era emerging from the conventional 1950s into a new opennes to change in the 1960s. Lippman's previous novel was an exercise in neo-noir genre bending, and the new one is another change in direction for a writer who keeps coming up with interesting takes on the crime novel, expanding the scope of the genre beyond conventional exectations (much as her new heroine expands her own scope and life).
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Your thumbnail reviews are as exciting as the several books on this page that I'm trying hard to choose between (like Lady In the Lake and The Fragility of Bodies. I'm currently watching the Suburra TV series on my Amazon Fire tablet). You write like a Brit, with vivid and precise expression, in an understated yet excited tone. A lesser skill might not convey the content of these books in a way that impels me to read them.
By the way, in the Crime Links panel, the topmost link might be edited to jakeneedhamnovels.com. Lovely new site; Mr. Needham doesn't have a blog on it, sends Letters From Asia by email now.
His new 'Mongkok' is coming out shortly. Don't miss it!
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