First as a reporter and then as a PI, Tess Monaghan has learned how to survive and thrive on the streets of Baltimore. But a new case will force her to confront her own past, and a man she loved and lost. It starts when she gets a newspaper photograph of her old boyfriend with a tantalizing shard of headline attached: In Big Trouble. The answers lie far from Baltimore, deep in a world of good-time music, old-fashioned ambition, and rich people's games. For Tess must find out what happened to a man she thought she knew, to a woman who may have changed him forever, and to the victims of a killer who dances to a different—and deadly—drummer.
Edgar Award-winning author Laura Lippman has created a winning character in Baltimore-based P.I. Tess Monaghan. This time Tess, a smart-mouthed, uninhibited woman with a taste for pleasure, leaves her familiar Baltimore backdrop and heads to the Lone Star State, where her former boyfriend, a musician, has disappeared. Without her usual support system in place, Tess makes some quirky new friends, notably her Vietnamese landlady, who's addicted to Spanish soaps, and Hispanic lawyer Rick Trejo. Deborah Hazlett's reading is just right for this lighthearted fare. Her rendering of Tess is upbeat, and the stereotypical Asian accent she gives to Mrs. Nguyen works for her ditzy character. Because this is not Lippman's best Monaghan adventure, fans will appreciate Tess's latest outing but may be happier once she's back in Baltimore. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
About the Author
Laura Lippman was a Baltimore Sun reporter for twelve years. Her novels have been awarded every major prize in crime fiction. She has penned nine books in the Tess Monaghan series, including Baltimore Blues, Charm City, and Butcher Hill, which are available from Sound Library®. The first-ever recipient of the Mayor's Prize for Literary Excellence, she lives in Baltimore, Maryland.
