Lady in the Lake

Haunting... extraordinary.

Lippman is such a skilful writer, her narrative flitting between perspectives to bring 1960s Baltimore, a world of racial tensions and sexual inequality, to vivid life.

This is another masterpiece from Laura Lippman...Lippman stops short of any trite moralising, but, if there is a message in her writing, it’s about the value of complexity - Maddie is a woman torn between passion, respectability and ambition. A real triumph of storytelling and suspense.

A panoramic novel of Baltimore in the 1960s which explores the myriad difficulties faced by a woman who asserts her independence... Complex, hard-hitting and unflinching, The Lady in the Lake confirms Lippman as one of America’s most important literary voices.

Apart from the consummately structured narrative, we are given both a vivid evocation of time and place — an unenlightened Ohio of the 1960s —and a cogent sociological study that is not afraid to be critical of its single-minded protagonist.

Lippman gives us a kaleidoscope... of opinions and viewpoints across the city that coalesce into a vivid portrait of Baltimore life at the time. The result is a deeply resonant piece of fiction that is truly moving.