Bücher von Laura Lippman

Basketball geho¿rt zu Baltimore wie Geldsorgen zu Tess Monaghan. Noch bekannter ist die gro¿ßte Stadt im US-Bundesstaat Maryland allerdings fu¿r ihre hohe Kriminalita¿tsrate. Baltimore hat ein Imageproblem, und eine neue Basketballmannschaft soll Abhilfe schaf- fen. Großunternehmer und Milliona¿r Gerard »Wink« Wynkowski nimmt sich der Sache an, ist aber selbst kein Saubermann. Ein gefundenes Fressen fu¿r die Presse. Der Beacon macht mit einem reißerischen Artikel u¿ber Wink auf - und wenig spa¿ter wird der Milliona¿r tot in seinem Auto gefunden, das mit laufendem Motor in der Garage steht. Selbstmord? Die Chefetage des Beacon bestreitet vehement, den vernichtenden Artikel freigegeben zu haben. Und so wird kurzerhand Tess Monaghan, ehemalige Journalistin und frisch gebackene Privatdetektivin, abgestellt, um in der Redaktion zu ermitteln. A¿rgerlicherweise hat ausgerechnet ihr alter Kollege und Freund Kevin Feeney den folgeschweren Artikel geschrieben.

Ex-Journalistin Tess Monaghan hat endlich ihre eigene Privatdetektei. Allerdings hatte sie sich das alles etwas glamouröser vorgestellt: Das Büro liegt in Butchers Hill, einem der übelsten Viertel von Baltimore, die Möbel sind ausrangierte Erbstücke, und auf dem Firmenschild steht immer noch der Name des Vormieters, den Tess am Umsatz beteiligen muss. Noch dazu ist ihr erster Klient ein Mörder: Luther Beale, besser bekannt als »Schlachter von Butchers Hill«. Vier Jahre zuvor hat Beale einen elfjährigen Jungen erschossen, der sein Auto demoliert hat. Jetzt will der Ex-Häftling sein Gewissen beruhigen und die vier schwarzen Jugendlichen, die damals Augenzeugen waren, finanziell entschädigen. Tess soll sie finden. Kaum hat sie die Suche aufgenommen, kommen die Jugendlichen einer nach dem anderen ums Leben. Ihre Ermittlungen konfrontieren Tess nicht nur mit der von Gewalt, Drogen und Kriminalität geprägten Lebenswelt vieler Kinder in Baltimore, sondern auch mit dem Versagen der amerikanischen Jugendfürsorge.

Two decades ago Amber Glass gave birth during the prom. No-one knew she was pregnant - including her date, Joe. She left town and hasn't seen Joe since. Now Amber is back, and as the two of them tentatively start to renew their unlikely relationship, will their secrets and motivations finally destroy everyone around them?

Laura Lippman returns with a superb novel about a pair of lovers with the best intentions and the worst luck: two people locked in a passionate yet uncompromising game of cat and mouse. But instead of rules, this game has dark secrets, forbidden desires, inevitable betrayals?and cold-blooded murder.One is playing a long game. But which one?They meet at a tavern in a small Delaware town. Polly is set on heading west. Adam says he's also passing through. Yet she stays. And he stays?drawn to the mysterious redhead whose quiet stillness unnerves and excites him. Over the course of a punishing summer, Polly and Adam abandon themselves to a steamy, in-exorable affair. Still, each holds something back from the other?dangerous, even lethal, secrets.Then someone dies. Was it an accident, or part of a plan? By now, Adam and Polly are so ensnared in each other's lives and lies that neither one knows how to get away?or even if they want to. Is their love strong enough to withstand the truth, or will it destroy them?Something?or someone?has to give.Which one will it be?

New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman plunges Baltimore private investigator Tess Monaghan into a twisted and disturbing case.Tess Monaghan has encountered almost every possible criminal motive throughout her career: greed, revenge, jealousy, rage. But there are crimes that defy all attempts at understanding, where a search for motive seems pointless.Melisandre Harris Dawes committed such a crime. Found not guilty by reason of insanity, she fled the country, leaving her two daughters with their father. Twelve years later, she's back in Baltimore, and Tess is asked to provide security detail while Melisandre films a documentary about her attempts to reconcile with her now teenaged children.Tess, juggling work with caring for her demanding toddler, is uneasy about the case. Still, Melisandre's lawyer is family. And there is something about the woman herself--confident, beautiful, shrewdly intelligent--that draws Tess in. Is she a master manipulator or someone who was driven to temporary madness? Cold and calculating, or a mother concerned for her daughters' well being? Someone is leaving Melisandre enigmatic, threatening notes. Soon Tess, insecure about her parenting abilities and receiving cryptic messages of her own, isn't sure whether she should be protecting Melisandre from harm--or protecting everyone else from Melisandre.When Melisandre becomes the prime suspect in a murder, Tess must uncover the truth. Doing so will mean confronting her deepest beliefs about what separates good parents from bad, madness from sanity, and what lengths even the most rational person will go to, to protect what they cherish most.

New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman's Tess Monaghan takes on the case of a notorious former vigilante--and finds herself embroiled in a case with far-reaching consequences where the truth is as dangerous as the lies she uncovers. . . .PI Tess Monaghan doesn't expect her first case in her new private investigation practice in Baltimore's neighborhood of Butchers Hill to come in the form of Luther Beale--an ex-con who was sent to prison for shooting Donnie Moore, a boy who vandalized his car five years earlier. The former vigilante, who became known as the Butcher of Butchers Hill, wants Tess to find Treasure and Destiny Teeter, Salamon Hawkings, and Eldon Kane--the other kids who witnessed his crime--so he can finally make amends. His motives seem genuine to Tess who thinks he's an old man who made a terrible, tragic mistake. Yet others don't see it that way and think Luther is simply evil and should have never been released from prison.But not long after Tess begins her search, Treasure and Destiny Teeter are found murdered. Could Luther have been responsible for their deaths? Is that the real reason why he wanted Tess to find them? But just when her doubts about her client surface, Luther makes a shocking revelation that puts everything into question. As Tess soon learns, the more she digs, the more complicated this case becomes as she must decide whether her client was capable of killing Treasure and Destiny and if he's telling her the complete truth about Donnie Moore's shooting.But Tess doesn't have a lot of time for a killer who's waiting to strike again--a killer whose sights are now set on Tess.

From critically acclaimed, multiple-award winner Laura Lippman comes a riveting story of love and murder, guilt and innocence Two little girls banished from a neighborhood birthday party find an abandoned stroller with an infant inside on an unfamiliar Baltimore street. What happens next is shocking and terrible, causing the irreparable devastation of three separate families.Seven years later, Alice Manning and Ronnie Fuller, now eighteen, are released from ?kid prison? to begin their lives over again. But the secrets swirling around the original crime continue to haunt the parents, the lawyers, the police, and all the adults in Alice and Ronnie's lives. And now another child has disappeared, under freakishly similar circumstances.

New York Times bestseller Laura Lippman showcases why she is one of today's top crime writers in this acclaimed collection of suspenseful stories featuring fierce women?including one never-before-published novella.?A first-rate collection, an obvious must for the legions of Lippman fans, but also great reading for anyone who savors short crime fiction.? ? Booklist (starred review)The award-winning master of psychological suspense is in top form in this collection of diverse and diabolically clever stories.In the never-before-published ?Just One More,? a married couple?longing for that old romantic spark?creates a playful diversion that comes with unexpected consequences.Lippman's beloved Baltimore PI Tess Monaghan keeps a watchful eye on a criminally resourceful single father in ?Seasonal Work,? while her mother, Judith, realizes that the life of ?The Everyday Housewife? is an excellent cover for all kinds of secrets.In ?Slow Burner,? a husband's secret cell phone proves to be a dicey temptation for a suspicious wife.A father's hidden past piques the curiosity of a young snoop in ?The Last of Sheila-Locke Holmes.?Plus seven other brilliantly crafted stories of deception, murder, dangerous games, and love gone wrong?irrefutable evidence that Laura Lippman's riveting fiction will more than satisfy any crime reader.

Years ago, they were all the best of friends. But as time passed and circumstances changed, they grew apart, became adults with families of their own, and began to forget about the past?and the terrible lie they all shared. But now Gordon ("Go-Go"), the youngest and wildest of the five, has died unexpectedly and the other four have come together for the first time in years. Suddenly each of these old friends has to wonder if the dark secret they've shared for so long is the reason for their troubles today . . . and if someone within the circle is trying to destroy them all.

"Laura Lippman is among the select group of novelists who have invigorated the crime fiction arena with smart, innovative, and exciting work."--George Pelecanos"Lippman's taut, mesmerizing, and exceptionally smart drama of predator and prey is at once unusually sensitive and utterly compelling.--BooklistLaura Lippman, New York Times bestselling author of What the Dead Know, Life Sentences, and the acclaimed Tess Monaghan p.i. series, delivers a stunning stand-alone novel that explores the lasting effects on lives touched by crime. With I'd Know You Anywhere, Lippman--master of mystery and psychological suspense, winner of every major literary prize given for crime fiction, including the Edgar(R), Agatha, and Nero Wolfe Awards--tells a gripping and richly textured tale of a young woman whose life dangerously entwines once again with a man on Death Row who had kidnapped her when she was a teenager. This is superior mystery writing in the vein of Kate Atkinson.

Some secrets can't be kept . . . .Years ago, they were all the best of friends. But as time passed and circumstances changed, they grew apart, became adults with families of their own, and began to forget about the past?and the terrible lie they all shared.But now Gordon, the youngest and wildest of the five, has died and the others are thrown together for the first time in years.And then the revelations start.Could their long-ago lie be the reason for their troubles today? Each one of these old friends has to wonder if their secret has been discovered?and if someone within the circle is out to destroy them.

When Felix Brewer meets Bernadette "Bambi" Gottschalk in 1959, he charms her with wild promises, some of which he actually keeps. Thanks to his lucrative?if not all legal?businesses, she and their three little girls live in luxury. But in July 1976, Bambi's world implodes when Felix, facing prison, vanishes.Though Bambi has no idea where her husband?or his money?might be, she suspects one woman does: his mistress, Julie. When Julie disappears ten years to the day after Felix went on the lam, everyone assumes she's left to join her lover?until her remains are discovered in a secluded park.Now, twenty-six years later, Roberto Sanchez, a retired Baltimore detective working cold cases for cash, is investigating her murder. What he discovers is a tangled web of bitterness, jealousy, resentment, greed, and longing stretching over five decades. At its center is the man who, though long gone, has never been forgotten: the enigmatic Felix Brewer.

New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman spins a spellbinding novel of suspense in which PI Tess Monaghan must turn to the past to solve a murder in the present. . . .PI Tess Monaghan thought she'd seen the last of her ex-boyfriend Ed Crow when they ended their relationship. But when she receives a newspaper clipping with a photo of Crow and the headline "IN BIG TROUBLE," she's reluctantly pulled into looking for him and heads to Austin, Texas?the last place he was seen. Searching the house where Crow was staying, Tess stumbles on more than she bargained for when she finds the body of an ex-convict whose face has been blown off with a rifle.Now, with the local sheriff breathing down her neck for answers, Tess knows she has to find Crow?and fast?before the cops locate him. As she attempts to track him down and meets Emmie Sterne, the singer in Crow's band, Tess immediately senses something's off with the blonde, blue-eyed stunner. Tess has no doubt that Crow is innocent?but the company he's been keeping is questionable, even if she is easy on the eyes.Determined to find Crow and make sure he isn't in any danger, Tess investigates and soon discovers she hardly knows the man she thought she knew. But more troubling, she realizes she still has feelings for him. And when another corpse surfaces, Tess must find out the connection between the two murders and Emmie's dark past . . . and if a killer lurks behind that pretty face.

Reporter-turned-p.i. Tess Monaghan loves every inch of her native Baltimore?a quirky city where baseball reigns, and homicide seems to be the second most popular sport. Business tycoon ?Wink? Wynkowski wants to change all of that by bringing pro-basketball back to town?a laudable mission that's greeted with widespread cheers . . . and a muckraking front page exposé of his past in the Baltimore Beacon-Light. The ?Blight's? surprised editors are sure they killed the piece. Instead, the piece kills Wynkowski, who's discovered asphyxiated in his garage with his car's engine running. Now the paper wants former newshound Tess to track down the rogue computer hacker whose prank took a human life. But there's more than cyber-crime involved here?and Tess is about to discover firsthand that trying to stay alive in Charm City is murder these days.

"Lippman is a writing powerhouse. " --USA Today "I love her books." --Harlan Coben New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman--winner of the Edgar(R) Award and every other major literary prize given for mystery and crime fiction--embroils Baltimore p.i. Tess Monaghan in the strange case of The Girl in the Green Raincoat. Originally serialized in the New York Times, The Girl in the Green Raincoat is now in book form for the very first time--a masterful thriller in the Alfred Hitchcock mode that places a very pregnant, homebound Tess in the center of a murderous puzzle that could cost her her life and the life of her unborn child.

The acclaimed New York Times bestselling author returns with a new stand-alone novel?a powerful and utterly riveting tale that skillfully moves between past and present to explore the lasting effects of crime on a victim's life....I'd Know You AnywhereEliza Benedict cherishes her peaceful, ordinary suburban life with her successful husband and children, thirteen-year-old Iso and eight-year-old Albie. But her tranquillity is shattered when she receives a letter from the last person she ever expects?or wants?to hear from: Walter Bowman. There was your photo, in a magazine. Of course, you are older now. Still, I'd know you anywhere.In the summer of 1985, when she was fifteen, Eliza was kidnapped by Walter and held hostage for almost six weeks. He had killed at least one girl and Eliza always suspected he had other victims as well. Now on death row in Virginia for the rape and murder of his final victim, Walter seems to be making a heartfelt act of contrition as his execution nears. Though Eliza wants nothing to do with him, she's never forgotten that Walter was most unpredictable when ignored. Desperate to shelter her children from this undisclosed trauma in her past, she cautiously makes contact with Walter. She's always wondered why Walter let her live, and perhaps now he'll tell her?and share the truth about his other victims.Yet as Walter presses her for more and deeper contact, it becomes clear that he is after something greater than forgiveness. He wants Eliza to remember what really happened that long-ago summer. He wants her to save his life. And Eliza, who has worked hard for her comfortable, cocooned life, will do anything to protect it?even if it means finally facing the events of that horrifying summer and the terrible truth she's kept buried inside.An edgy, utterly gripping tale of psychological manipulation that will leave readers racing to the final page, I'd Know You Anywhere is a virtuoso performance from acclaimed, award-winning author Laura Lippman that is sure to be her biggest hit yet.

Past and present, truth and memory collide in this searing novel from the award winning, New York Times bestselling author A successful memoirist returns home to Baltimore searching for inspiration for her next book. When she discovers an old classmate is accused of a heinous crime, she decides to braid this tragic story with reminiscences of her grade school years. To the writer's dismay, her friends--motivated by anger, perhaps jealousy--seem determined to sabotage her efforts, leaving her to persevere alone. As she digs deeper into the tragedy surrounding her old classmate, the writer begins to see that everything she thought she knew about her life might be quite different. And if she wants to pursue the truth in this modern-day story, she may have to pay the price of living with uncomfortable truths, about her father, her past, and herself. With her deep intelligence, unerring eye for detail, and unwavering compassion, Laura Lipmann raises difficult, illuminating questions about the nature of memory and truth. Life Sentences explores the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, asking whether anyone can truly own any story--even their own.

Author Cassandra Fallows has achieved remarkable success by baring her life on the page. Her two widely popular memoirs continue to sell briskly, acclaimed for their brutal, unexpurgated candor about friends, family, lovers?and herself. But now, after a singularly unsuccessful stab at fiction, Cassandra believes she may have found the story that will enable her triumphant return to nonfiction.When Cassandra was a girl, growing up in a racially diverse middle-class neighborhood in Baltimore, her best friends were all black: elegant, privileged Donna; sharp, shrewd Tisha; wild and worldly Fatima. A fifth girl orbited their world?a shy, quiet, unobtrusive child named Calliope Jenkins?who, years later, would be accused of killing her infant son. Yet the boy's body was never found and Calliope's unrelenting silence on the subject forced a judge to jail her for contempt. For seven years, Calliope refused to speak and the court was finally forced to let her go. Cassandra believes this still unsolved real-life mystery, largely unknown outside Baltimore, could be her next bestseller.But her homecoming and latest journey into the past will not be welcomed by everyone, especially by her former friends, who are unimpressed with Cassandra's success?and are insistent on their own version of their shared history. And by delving too deeply into Calliope's dark secrets, Cassandra may inadvertently unearth a few of her own?forcing her to reexamine the memories she holds most precious, as the stark light of truth illuminates a mother's pain, a father's betrayal . . . and what really transpired on a terrible day that changed not only a family but an entire country.

When private investigator Tess Monaghan literally runs into the crew of a fledgling TV series while sculling, she expects sharp words and evil looks, not an assignment. But the company has been plagued by a series of disturbing incidents since their arrival on location in Baltimore. Worried for the safety of the young female lead, they ask Tess to serve as her bodyguard/babysitter. In the past, Tess has had enough trouble guarding her own body; keeping a spoiled movie princess under wraps may be more than she can handle. But the fish-out-of-water p.i. is abruptly pulled back in by an occurrence she's all too familiar with?murder. Suddenly the wall of secrets is in danger of toppling, leaving shattered dreams, careers, and lives scattered among the ruins?a catastrophe that threatens the people Tess cares about...and the city she loves.