Lady in the Lake is aching, thoughtful, and compulsively readable.” - Vanity Fair “ tells a classic mystery through the prism of many characters, all feeling the reverberations of dawning feminism and racial tension in civil-rights-era Baltimore. “ only seems to be getting better.” - Entertainment Weekly “A cavalcade of narrators-including Cleo’s ghost, who wants Maddie to stop poking into her world-and Lippman’s expert storytelling bring the city’s tensions wondrously to life.” - People “Don’t miss this novel.” - Anna Quindlen, New York Times bestselling author reflects the gulf which then existed between what women were expected to be and what they aspired to be.” - Stephen King

What makes this book special, even extraordinary, is that the crossword puzzle aspect is secondary. “.the closest writer America has to Ruth Rendell. Her inability to look beyond her own needs will lead to tragedy and turmoil for all sorts of people-including Ferdie, the man who shares her bed, a police officer who is risking far more than Maddie can understand. But for all her ambition and drive, Maddie often fails to see the people right in front of her. Maddie’s investigation brings her into contact with people that used to be on the periphery of her life-a jewelry store clerk, a waitress, a rising star on the Baltimore Orioles, a patrol cop, a hardened female reporter, a lonely man in a movie theater. Cleo scolds the ambitious Maddie: You're interested in my death, not my life. Instead, her mysterious death receives only cursory mention in the daily newspapers, and no one cares when Maddie starts poking around in a young Black woman's life-except for Cleo's ghost, who is determined to keep her secrets and her dignity. If Cleo were white, every reporter in Baltimore would be clamoring to tell her story. Drawing on her own secrets, she helps Baltimore police find a murdered girl-assistance that leads to a job at the city’s afternoon newspaper, the Sta r. Working at the newspaper offers Maddie the opportunity to make her name, and she has found just the story to do it: Cleo Sherwood, a missing woman whose body was discovered in the fountain of a city park lake. Maddie wants to matter, to leave her mark on a swiftly changing world. This year, she’s bolted from her marriage of almost twenty years, determined to make good on her youthful ambitions to live a passionate, meaningful life. Last year, she was a happy, even pampered housewife. In 1966, Baltimore is a city of secrets that everyone seems to know-everyone, that is, except Madeline “Maddie” Schwartz.

The revered New York Times bestselling author returns with a novel set in 1960s Baltimore that combines modern psychological insights with elements of classic noir, about a middle-aged housewife turned aspiring reporter who pursues the murder of a forgotten young woman.

Lady of the lake lippman