Last year Maddie was a happy, pampered houseguest, but this year she bolted from her marriage determined to make good on her youthful ambitions to live a meaningful life. She wants to leave her mark on the world and helps the Baltimore Police find the body of a murdered girl. Working at the newspaper gives her the opportunity to make her name and she’s found the story to do so. No one seems to care why she was killed except Maddie. Maddie is going to find the truth about Cleo’s life and death.

I am a huge Lippman fan and was very excited to be approved for this novel, but unfortunately my excitement was short lived. I was confused from the beginning of the novel on who was narrating at any given time, after a while I got used to what was going on and enjoyed it a bit more. I did find this novel very long and drawn out; I knew who did it and why quite early on and found I was just waiting for everyone else to figure it out. I did enjoy the parts written by Cleo and how you wondered how exactly we were getting this information. Overall, I just couldn’t connect to the characters or the story unfortunately.

Out July 25th!

A woman's body is found in a lake - who is she? How did she get there? A woman who has recently left her husband and son takes it upon herself to dig around into the murky background of the lady and her acquaintances.

On first sight this is a murder mystery, however there is so much more to this book. There is the history of 1960s Baltimore, a commentary on racism and sexism as well as the issues faced by Maddie on leaving her marriage, as well as trying to break into the newspaper business.

The story is told by an ever changing cast of narrators, these differing voices gave insights into the situation however did not spoil the twist in the plot - which I did not see coming.

Top read.

I loved this read! I felt like it was so fitting with the current climate in our world today. There were some plot lines that were unexpected, which just added to the realness of the story. I will be recommending this to my friends!

Lady in the Lake had a lot of potential to be a phenomenal story. Taking place during the 1960s in Baltimore, and told from many different viewpoints, the racial and feminist tones of that decade permeate throughout. Two unrelated murders unexpectedly place Maddie, a former housewife who wants to strike out on her own, in the center of the investigation. While trying to determine what happened to Cleo Sherwood, a young woman of color, Maddie is caught between the past and present.

The beginning and middle of the story are rather slow and many different voices narrate-the format is a little disjointed but not unexpected for an ARC. The last half of the book really picks up pace and brings the story together with some surprises and unexpected ending. With a little less narration and a more straightforward approach it would be a solid 4 star rating.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

It's 1964 when Cleo Sherwood disappears. It's been eight months and no one is looking for her. Cleo was out to find a better life for her and her sons. Cleo wishes Maddie would stop looking for her. 

There was a voice for every character. I wasn't sure at first if Cleo was the Lady in the Lake. New characters kept showing up and got their own chapters. It was confusing.

The story centers around Cleo's voice and Maddie's voice. Maddie is married to a rich man. She has a lot of secrets and while she talks a lot to herself, we have no idea what is behind her character. 

I got bored about halfway through. There was nothing to like or dislike. It was just boring. And that is not what I would expect from the author. I will definitely be reading more of her.

NetGalley/ July 23rd, 2019 by Faber & Faber

Atmospheric, stand alone noir set in 1960s Baltimore, and told through the first person narration of a wide variety of people involved in the discovery of a dead woman in a park fountain. Lippman's knowledge of both the city and the local news establishment deeply infuse the plot and the context.

How can you go wrong with this one?! It is the late '60's with history being made at every turn.

This is the story of a missing person that no one notices and a journalist that is trying to make a name for herself in a male dominated industry. There is so much more to this book and I know that this review does not do it justice. Get this book and see for yourself!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Faber and Faber Ltd for this advanced readers copy. This book is scheduled for release in July 2019.

Thank you to Netgalley and William Morrow for the opportunity to read this book.
I have enjoyed each of the Laura Lippman books I have read. I have found myself still thinking of the main characters in this book and marveling at them. Despite focusing on two separate murders in Baltimore in the 1960s, this novel touches on so many more topics that were prevalent at that time. Some of which are still occurring today. I did not love the chapters from minor character’s viewpoints that were interspersed with the main character’s tale. However I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and recommend it to anyone who is looking for something a bit different from the “usual” murder-mystery or historical fiction book.

I feel that there's way too much going on in this book. I tried to like it, I really did, but the chapters with various characters speaking all throughout the book became tedious to read. Sometimes too much is just too much. Stick with the basics. Have the main character or two or three tell the story, not a whole bunch of characters. While this was well written, I just did not enjoy it as I thought that I would. This is a solid 3/5 at best.

A divorced Jewish woman. Baltimore in the 60's.Segregation runs rampant. Sexism abounds.Thus begins the new novel by Laura Lippman that is a slow burn with short chapters and a new character introduced at every round. Once I got used to it, the style was easy and smooth flowing, The writing style was as smooth as putting butter on a hot piece of toast. I read it quickly,BUT, I couldn't wrap my arms around this novel. I found the main character's dialogue not fitting with who she was and the plot rather simplistic.I also hated how she badgered families who had lost loved ones and didn't feel that fit in with her character. Normally I am a big fan of Lippman's but this just didn't cut it for me.

The premise of this book was really interesting. Set in the 60s in the US. Lots of racial tensions and inequalities were addressed true to form.
Well developed characters

Thank you to NetGalley and Farber & Farber Publishing for gifting me with an ARC of Laura Lippman’s newest novel. In exchange I offer my unbiased review.

This was my first time reading Laura Lippman and I was instantly captivated. Her writing is strong and effortless and I was easily transported to 1960s Baltimore. I enjoyed the skilled. weaving of multiple characters and the way their viewpoints were seamlessly blended into the story. While not quite a thriller, I would categorize this book as literary crime noir.

The story centers around two missing bodies. One is Cleo Sherwood, an African American single mother and Tessie Fine, an eleven year old Jewish girl from a wealthy prominent family. Tessie’s disappearance quickly garners city wide interest but nobody seems too concerned with a missing Negro woman. Enter Madeline Schwartz. Maddie a local girl, married to a successful attorney, a respected homemaker and hostess is feeling restless. Wanting more to life than being a trophy wife, Maddie leaves her marriage & pampered existence and yearns to become a local news reporter. When Maddie inadvertently stumbles into both missing persons cases, she is finally presented with an opportunity to seek the job she always wanted. However for Maddie, she might be getting more than she anticipated.

This was a solid read, with a satisfying storyline and some good twists along the way. I enjoyed the setting and time as much as the mystery. This book will appeal to all readers. I’m excited to go back now and read more of Laura Lippman’s extensive work.

I loved how each chapter represented a different perspective from a different character. This made for a new outlook on what was sort of a classic murder mystery.

What a great book. Ive been reading Ms. Lippman since her first Tess book and she keeps getting better.

My favorite aspect of this book is the alternating narrative from the characters we meet in this book. The majority are from the Lady in the Lake but there are police officers, a bartender, a psychic and more. It's a wonderfully inventive way to get a fresh perspective as one reads.

Maddie Schwartz decides to leave her husband and strike out on her own. She moves into an apartment in a not so nice area of town or at least where nice Jewish ladies don't live. She makes a younger friend and one night they discover the body of a missing child. Everything leads from there. She meets a man, starts a new career and in the course of that job she helps find another body, The Lady in the Lake.

Segregated life, gay men hiding their private lives, Baltimore underworld all make their presence known in this book which takes place in the late 60's.

Excellent read.

"Lady in the Lake" centres on Maddie Schwartz, a Baltimore housewife who wants more from life than catering dinner parties for her husband's colleagues and visiting the country club. She walks away from her marriage in order to live a more meaningful life, and in doing so, manages to secure herself a job at the city's newspaper. Maddie is given what is tantamount to grunt work, until she finds the story that gives her the opportunity to make her name: a young black woman named Cleo Sherwood whose body has been found in a local lake.

The novel follows Maddie's investigation into Cleo's death, with chapters narrated by Maddie interspersed with chapters in the voices of other characters who have something to offer in terms of perspective or insight, some minor characters, some major.

This one isn't about quick thrills or cliffhanger chapter-endings - it's a finely-written slow burn of a novel which explores so much more than the death of its titular character - gender and race in 1960s Baltimore, interracial relationships, and the quest for one woman to not only find answers but to find herself.

(A copy of this book was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest and impartial review).

Lady in the Lake is the latest stand-alone novel from Laura Lippman and tells the story of the death of a young woman in 1960s Baltimore from the perspective of several different characters. The primary narrator is Maddie Schwarz, a housewife who recently left her husband to explore life on her own. Maddie is a complicated character, and not entirely likeable, but I admired her for figuring out what she wanted and how to get it.

Lippman does a brilliant job of shifting perspectives from one character to another and of evoking a different time in her beloved Baltimore. While I would not characterize this as a page turner, the book skillfully weaves a compelling mystery with the stories of what it was like for each character to exist in the turbulent period of the 1960s.

Thank you to Faber & Faber and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Laura Lippman does it again! Perfectly recreating mid-1960s Baltimore, and the social and racial strata that defined who you were and what possibilities were open to you, this compelling story follows the unlikely liberation of Maddie, a young-ish Jewish housewife who leaves her husband and teenage son, to live on her own and try to become a reporter. Having parlayed knowledge of a child murder case (she and a friend happened to find the body) into an unsatisfying job at a local paper, she sees the case of the "Lady of the Lake" as her big ticket. Unfortunately, her naivété about the social and racial implications of digging into said case, and her dogged determination to uncover the facts, get her into hot water.

The storytelling is intelligent, the characters complex and well-written, and I loved the plot device of having narration change from chapter to chapter between Maddie, the "Lady of the Lake" and assorted characters with whom Maddie comes into contact, telling their own stories to give a wider perspective. This is a stand-alone, but I did get a chuckle out of how Lippman managed to work the meeting, courtship and marriage of Tess Monaghan's parents, who is one of my favorite female PIs, into the story.

Highly recommended!

This was a fascinating noir blend! I have been a fan of Lippman’s previous novels, but this takes the cake! Think if Betty Draper from a Mad Men was the Girl on the Train. A delightful read

Another good book from Laura Lippman. Great ending, a nice twist. Although I wished there was more Cleo and less Madeline. And I'm not sure if all the additional POVs needed to be there, though it was interesting to see how two different people perceived the same situation. Would have liked more on the Tessie Fine case too.

Thank Netgalley and the publiser for the opportunity to review this book.Maddie Schwartz is a wife a mother in 1966 hosting fabulous dinner parties. But she wants more. Maddie leaves her husband and teenage son and finds a
job as a clerk for a Baltimore newspaper. Soon she becomes obsessed about the body of a woman,Cleo Sherwood found in a lake. Maddie begins to investigate Cleo's life and friends and family. The author provides insight and intrigue by switching voices throughout the story. Soon I was just as invested as Maddie in finding the truth about Cleo Sherwood’s life and death.

The 1960s were a tumultuous time socially, and racially in the United States. These themes were woven into the story adding another layer of intrigue. As Maddie searches for answers and finds her own way the truth ultimately is revealed. Maddie was a complex character embodying all the social and political unrest of the time.



Laura Lippman is a wonderful storyteller. This did not disappoint. There were twists and turns.
And surprises I didn't see coming.