What makes this book special, even extraordinary, is that the crossword puzzle aspect is secondary. Lippman, who is the closest writer America has to Ruth Rendell, is after bigger game ... Lippman’s point — which takes this book far beyond the works of Agatha Christie and Rex Stout, although Lippman does not fail to honor her genre roots — is that Maddie also pays, and in blood ... Lippman walks a fine line, balancing a cracking good mystery with the story of a not always admirable woman working to stand on her own. Lippman never loses sight of Maddie’s options and her obstacles ... she never loses touch with the twin mysteries at the center of her story ... Lippman answers all outstanding questions with a totally cool double twist that your reviewer — a veteran reader of mysteries — never saw coming.
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 ... Lippman isn’t a stranger to stories involving race...and here she casts a wide net in the quest for authenticity, including the perspectives of Cleo’s family and other traditionally underrepresented voices ... Lippman writes with a nuanced understanding of character, and each voice is distinct ... And although some characters don’t seem to add much to the mystery of Cleo’s death, Lippman uses them to show the many layers a reporter must sift through while pursuing a lead. The Lady of the Lake is more than a 'weird love letter to Baltimore newspapers' — it is an earnest and beautiful homage to a city and its people.
Lady in the Lake is a newspaper novel as well as a neo-noir thriller. Ms. Lippman, a reporter for 20 years before she turned to fiction full-time, writes with authority about the varied types found at a daily newspaper in decades past. She also evokes the condescension and obstruction Maddie encounters in pursuing her chosen calling ... Ms. 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.
While the voice of Cleo’s ghost is compelling, other narrators are less sharply articulated...But the suspense picks up as Maddie pieces together what really happened to Cleo ... Though Lady in the Lake is a thriller, it’s most gripping when it probes Maddie’s evolving relationship with the city she’s always lived in but is only now beginning to see clearly ... The clarity of Cleo’s voice, which directly addresses both Maddie and the reader, showcases her own complexities and interrogates the biases that threatened her very survival. It’s Cleo whose words make the reader feel the intense grip prejudice has over 1960s Baltimore, and Cleo who makes it impossible to ignore how that ugly legacy lives on.
Elegantly written, Laura Lippman’s superb new novel moves with an eye to how people adapt to changes in culture, or maybe how an evolving culture causes shifts in people ... works well on several levels — as a look at the mid-1960s and a view of racism, sexism and the intersection of ennui and ambition. It is also a paean to newspapers and the struggle of women reporters during that time ... Maddie isn’t always the most likable of characters, but Lippman makes readers care deeply about her ... Lippman again proves she’s a sharp observer of people, with an affinity for shaping complicated people in a refined plot.
In a bold move, there are almost two dozen voices in the book, often addressing the reader in short, confessional chapters—think reality TV contestants speaking directly to the camera. It provides insight into the private lives of people who may make only one appearance in the narrative; everyone has secrets ... Maddie’s...not a perfect person. She is headstrong and self-centered and, as one man notes, she is 'pushing forty' with 'nothing to look forward to.' That’s exactly what makes Maddie a riveting character; she’s reveling in her own unexpected power— to make choices, delight in her sexy boyfriend and launch a new career, writing and solving mysteries.
... terrific ... It’s a crime novel, but it’s the crime novel as social history, tackling big issues along with intimate violence ... Lippman nails the details when she paints the newsroom of the fictional Baltimore Star, from the smoky air, clattering typewriters and liquorous lunches to the casual, pervasive racism and sexism ... a compelling story of a woman making her way in the world ... If you’d like to see a master storyteller at work, dive into Lady in the Lake.
... a well plotted and gripping mystery thriller ... The plot is solid, the narration provided by multiple perspectives. The various narratives provide an extra boost to a juicy storyline. The protagonist is far from perfection, but she is compelling and sympathetic. An outstanding work to behold.
Laura Lippman's new suspense novel is called Lady in the Lake, a pretty straightforward purloining of the title of Raymond Chandler's fourth Philip Marlowe novel. And that's not Lippman's only act of appropriation ... Lippman has already weighed in in interviews and articles about her controversial decision as a white writer to adopt the voice of a black woman as one of her main characters. For me as a reader, what's incontestable is the power that Lippman bestows on Cleo's post-mortem voice and presence. Cleo is the still center around which her living counterpart, a white Jewish woman named Maddie Schwartz, frantically orbits ... Chandler's The Lady in the Lake was a middlin' novel; but Lippman's is a stunner, one that not only gives voice to that murdered 'lady in the lake,' but to a diverse crowd of Baltimoreans: Narrators include a jewelry store clerk, a beat cop and a player for the Baltimore Orioles. And, as much as this is an atmospheric suspense story based on two true-crime cases, it's also a compelling female adventure tale of Maddie, at mid-life, coming into her own amidst a rich historical depiction of 1960s Baltimore...
While short of the adrenaline-fueled suspense of other Lippman stand-alones (Sunburn), this work captures a time and place as it mixes fact with its fiction, plus a protagonist who challenges norms. With its well-drawn characters and lucid prose, this newspaper novel shines.
... an improbably well-timed release that, while fictional, may do a better job of illuminating the multifaceted Maryland metropolis’s story than either the angry outbursts or the reactions they provoke.
Lippman does some innovative things with narrative: not only does the ghost of Cleo speak directly to the reader, excoriating the reporter for digging into the past that Cleo wants left undisturbed, but we also hear from a Greek chorus–like assembly of voices, some fictional, some historical, who add texture to the portrayal of the city’s racial politics. In the middle of all that is Maddie, a significantly flawed but always compelling figure, an utterly human mix of compassion and self-centered ambition. 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 high-def depiction of 1960s Baltimore and the atmosphere of the newsroom at that time ground the book in fascinating historical fact.The literary gambit she balances atop that foundation—the collage of voices—works impressively, showcasing the author's gift for rhythms of speech. The story is bigger than the crime, and the crime is bigger than its solution, making Lippman's skill as a mystery novelist work as icing on the cake ... The racism, classism, and sexism of 50 years ago wrapped up in a stylish, sexy, suspenseful period drama about a newsroom and the city it covers.
... [a] smoldering standalone ... Lippman relates the bulk of the tale from Maddie’s perspective, but enriches the narrative with derisive commentary from Cleo and stunning vignettes of ancillary characters. Lippman’s fans will devour this sophisticated crime novel, which captures the era’s zeitgeist while painting a striking portrait of unapologetic female ambition.
