This is a mystery made more so by author Laura Lippman’s decision to provide point of view’s for almost every character we meet. I applaud her creativity but must admit it chopped up the tale and made it a less interesting story than it might have been. Rather than stick with her more compelling characters, we meet a host of others; some are obviously meant to confuse us in the larger game of who-done-it but others are just frankly decorative. The story takes place in the late 1960s and scenes are well-described while also almost all are what would have been called “ethnic” back then, either Jewish or African-American households in Baltimore. Newspapers, death and politics are the themes that run through these households, at least in this book. There are some nice twists but there are still too many characters to sift through. I was left a bit at loose ends by it all. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

This is a slow burn of a compelling murder mystery told from many perspectives. The primary characters are Maddie Schwartz, a housewife turned newspaper reporter, and Cleo Sherwood, the lady found murdered and disposed of in the lake. Baltimore, the 60's, and the varied cast of characters all contribute to a tale expertly told.

My Thoughts: I absolutely loved the first 80% of Lady in the Lake both for the story and for the way Laura Lippman chose to tell it. The story centers on two women, Maddie Schwartz and Cleo Sherwood. Maddie at 37 realized she was desperately unhappy in her marriage and left it. She’s on her own for the first time in her life, struggling to find meaning and working at a local newspaper. Cleo, a young single-mother, the lady in the lake, has gone missing. The story takes place in Baltimore in 1965, a time when women held little power and had to fight for their rightful places in the world. It was also an era of open racial prejudice, and both played into the story.

Lippman did a masterful job laying out her story. Each chapter about Maddie and her journey was followed by a very short chapter from someone who Maddie had interacted with in the previous chapter. These added hints, clarity, or simply color to the overall story. Also, she occasionally included chapters from Cleo who spoke in first person directly to Maddie, expressing her thoughts and frustrations on Maddie’s quest to find what happened to her. All that worked beautifully and then? It stopped. At about the 80% mark all the chapters went to Maddie and I grew a little bored with it. The other perspectives had been so colorful and added so much interest that when they were taken away, I felt cheated and cared much less about the story of what happened to the lady in the lake.

What seemingly small circumstances in life can lead to a life changing or life ending event? For Cleo Sherwood, seeing Madelyn “Maddie” Schwartz composed and beautiful beside her husband outside their Temple, inspires her to be that type of woman. For Maddie Schwartz seeing Wallace Wright, an old schoolmate, brings back the memories of her past and the lies she lived and told before her marriage. Suddenly life with Milton is not what Maddie desires and she starts a fresh as a divorcee and aspiring newspaper writer. As Maddie tries to become a writer, she gets caught up in the story of Cleo Sherwood and the discovery of her body in the lake. Who exactly was the “lady in the lake” and why was she murdered? What does Maddie truly want in life?

Lady in the Lake was uniquely assembled and I liked it. Maddie is the main point of view and it is written in the 3rd person, but interspersed between her chapters are 1st person narratives for other characters she meets along the way. It is really interesting to see how their points of views differed from Maddie. We all have our own unique perspective and understanding which may not always match the world around us.

I enjoyed that the novel was set in 1966 Baltimore and Lippman captured the mood of the times. The novel was wonderful noir set in a sweltering summer season full of mystery. I also enjoyed that Maddie was a Jewish woman and Cleo was an African American woman. Maddie also has a forbidden relationship with Ferdie, an African American cop. The dynamics of racial tensions during the 1960s helped to push the narrative forward.

Laura Lippman’s superb writing keep me hooked on this story, but the ending seemed rather abrupt to me. I really wanted to know how it ended, what happened to Cleo and what will Maddie do with life? I liked that the last chapter was set in 1985 so we ended up seeing what became of Maddie overall. I thought the ending of Cleo’s mystery was very underwhelming. After I finished the book, I thought about it for awhile and realized the book was more about Maddie’s journey to become a woman on her own with her own love and her own career. She did not want to be stuck in a defined role unable to use her brains and do what she wanted in life. I really enjoyed her journey. I just wish we would have gotten more of Cleo’s side of the journey.

Favorite Quotes:
“Modesty is for people who aren’t lucky enough to have things about which to be conceited.”

“Every day, Maddie was a little less beautiful than she had been the day before. Every moment she lived; she was also dying.”

“The heart knows nothing, sees nothing, but it kicks up a ruckus, throws tantrums to get what it wants.”

Overall, Lady in the Lake is a great noir novel set in the sweltering summer of 1966. It’s a great novel of a woman’s journey as she leaves behind convention and starts her career at a newspaper trying to solve murders of the time. I couldn’t put this book down!

Book Source: Review Copy from William Morrow as part of the TLC Book Tour. Thank-you!

Laura Lippman is one of my favorite authors, but this one was not my favorite. The constant perspective switching between ancillary characters was confusing at first, though I did come to appreciate it toward the end of the novel. I would definitely classify this book more as historical fiction than mystery or thriller. I appreciate Lippman's deep love for Baltimore and its history, but it felt overbearing at times. Overall it felt like there was too much going on, and the resolutions to the various storylines all felt rushed.

3.5 stars

Laura Lippman deviates from her usual style at bit in Lady in the Lake with the main narrators being a dead woman and a woman who wants to become a newspaper reporter - the two narratives combine when Maddie, the reporter, starts digging into the death of Cleo Sherwood. Lippman mentions in the acknowledgments that the newspaper reporter plot is in honor of her friend Rob Hiaasen who was killed in the Annapolis newspaper shooting. There were small perspectives sliced in as well, making the plot a bit hard to follow at times when you unsure of who the person is that is speaking. Eventually, the plot does all come together really well and has a strong ending - however, the pacing of the book was a bit slow for me. I'll continue reading Lippman in the future but this one was not my favorite.

Laura Lippman is a versatile author, writing not only an unusual mystery series but several standalone mystery/psychological studies, but Lady in the Lake is different even from any of these. Yes, there are a couple mysteries, but it's also a much delayed coming of age story.

This novel is told in many different voices -- each chapter by different characters, all part of the same story. If this sounds confusing, it is not in the least unclear. Rather, each different viewpoint makes the entire plot and picture clearer.

The main character is Maddie Schwartz. The setting of this story is key, both time and location wise. Most of Lippman's books take place in her home town of Baltimore which she describes masterfully. But the book also is happening around 1966 -- a pivotal time in American history, and Maddie is very much a product of this unsettled time period.

Maddie has a seemingly perfect life -- a marriage that looks good from the outside, a son, prosperity, good looks. But she realizes suddenly and brutally that she needs and wants more and walks away from her family to try and figure out what that is. She focuses quickly on becoming a reporter and gets involved with two different unsolved murders.

The mysteries are compelling, but what really keeps you reading are the characterizations. Maddie manages to be a sympathetic but not necessarily likable character. Lippman's writing is wonderfully intelligent and empathetic.

Thanks to the publisher and to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Right off the bat, I must confess I am a big Laura Lippman fan. I especially like her stand alone books. This one doesn’t disappoint but it won’t be one of my favorites of hers. The pros- Lippman is pushing herself and doing something unique. I really liked how the view in reading the book is omniscient. As you meet and read about different characters you get a view into their thoughts. One of the main characters is a ghost. Some of the characters seem more important to know their thoughts than others, but it’s all interesting. She is also exploring interracial relationships at a time when it was still illegal and definitely frowned upon.
The protagonist, Maddie Schwartz has just left her husband and is looking for something more out of life. Her path indirectly leads to writing/helping at a local Baltimore paper. While there, she indirectly investigates a local murder. She isn’t given much of a chance due to her gender, but she continues to scratch away. Maddie made me ponder what it must’ve been like to be a woman in previous eras, when the doors weren’t open for women. Yet Lippman does a great job of showing how more doors were open for Maddie, being an upper middle class white and attractive woman than for any of the women of color in the book.
The only con I saw, and it makes the book not one of my favorites, is that by moving back and forth between many characters inner thoughts- it made it hard for me to really connect with any one in particular. I felt a little removed from everyone. But the book is still an interesting and worthy read!

Acclaimed, best-selling author Laura Lippman uses a real-life unsolved drowning as the springboard for her new thriller, set in Baltimore in the turbulent mid-1960's.

The world is changing rapidly. Societal norms are being challenged. And thirty-seven-year-old Maddie Schwartz is no longer content to sit on the sidelines in her comfortable home with her dull, but reliable husband, Milton, and seventeen-year-old son, Seth. Maddie did what was expected of her -- she married an attorney, keeps a kosher home, cares for her son, and hopes that no one ever finds out about the dark secret she harbors. Before she married Milton, she did not always conform.

When Milton brings home the local television reporter -- a man Maddie knew in high school -- something snaps and she realizes she needs to pursue the dreams she abandoned in favor of stability and acceptance. She leaves Milton, and rents an apartment downtown in a neighborhood that is suffering the ravages of "white flight" to suburbia. Seth refuses to join her there. An one day, the always-clever Maddie devises a scheme to improve her circumstances that has far-reaching consequences she could never have anticipated.

Meanwhile, the body of a young woman lies submersed in the fountain situated in the park surrounding a local lake. She is a missing person that no one is actually looking for, a young African-American woman who left her two young sons, fathered by two different men, with her parents to raise while she worked in the notorious Flamingo Club, tending bar and performing other duties better left unmentioned. She visits her sons and parents, brings them gifts, and leaves again, much to the dismay of her parents.

When Maddie and a friend discover the body of a missing eleven-year-old girl, she schemes to find a way to parlay her luck into a job as a reporter at the Baltimore Star. She gets a job, although not as a reporter, but will not be satisfied until she reaches her goal. She understands all too well that men control her destiny and will use any means necessary, including flirtation and trust of those who provide her tips, to achieve her goal.

Lippman knows Baltimore. She spent twelve years as a reporter at the Baltimore Sun. Ironically, she says that she didn't set out to write a book in which much of the action is focused around a newspaper, noting that "Maddie Schartz surprised me as much as she surprised her longtime husband." Soon Lippman found herself interviewing her father's colleagues -- Theo Lippman Jr. was a journalist at the Baltimore Sun beginning in 1965 -- in order to get the details just right. Lady in the Lake is replete with historical and geographical references not just to the era, but Baltimore specifically. She even includes two real-lie people as characters in the book: the first African-American police officer in Baltimore, Violet Wilson Whyte who was known as Lady Law, and Oriole centerfielder Paul Blair.

The story is told by a series of narrators, primarily the lady in the lake herself and Maddie. But as Maddie encounters other characters, they are called upon to narrate the next chapter. Some reoccur, some only briefly contribute to the plot's progression. Lippman uses their voices to great effect to supply historical significance, context, and perspectives that balance Maddie's increasingly obsessive, and at times quite selfish, quest for the truth. Through her eclectic group of storytellers, Lippman explores not just the two killings, but racism, classism, and sexism, as well as the price that unbridled ambition can extract -- especially from a woman.

Lady in the Lake is a sophisticated and absorbing tale about a time and place not all that long ago that will leave readers pondering how much America has changed in the intervening years.

This is the first book I've read by Laura Lippman and looked forward to doing so.
The setting is 1960's Baltimore and she does a great job of portraying the scenes and ambiance of that time and place. Maddie Schwartz is a complex character and, once again, the author conveys the quirks and yearnings of her so well.. The alternating chapters reflecting different characters' takes as the crime unfolded seemed to work. I could not put the book down until I finished it, with the suspense building and building.
Yet, Maddie seemed a bit too over the top and her relationships with her immediate family seemed a bit too overblown. It's almost as if the author tried to include too much, detracting from the story.
It's a good vacation read that will keep you awake until you finish!

This book had me early on. It took hold and I had to just keep going for the ride. The writing just drew me in. The narrative style was a little different, mainly from one point of view, with alternating with a "ghost" view. We also would get a one time view from another person, someone the main character just interacted with. It was unique story-telling and I liked it.

The mystery was the propelling force of the story, but also how Madeline "Maddie" Schwartz grew as an independent woman. This was in the late 60's in a rigid Jewish Baltimore neighborhood, but Maddie broke out of the convention and went her own way.

For the expression of the strength of a woman the book rates higher for me. This was a quick and enjoyable read.

Laura Lippman's Lady in the Lake is a novel the unwraps several stories all tied together by the actions of Maggie Schwartz, a mother and housewife who decides to leave her husband and start life over in her late thirties. She wants to do and be "more" and her first actions lead her to play a role in solving two murders occur in 1966 Baltimore. Told in chapters with alternating perspectives (including those of the victims), the setting is tangible and the voices distinct. Maggie is a compelling main character, her exploits both understandable and unexpected. This is a perfect vacation read or a choice for anyone who likes a layered mystery.

The concept of the story was intriguing but with so many narrators, the story was very confusing. Maddie was an interesting character but a little too quirky. This author did a great job depicting the 60's, especially with the stereotypes. This story was hard to get into and hold my attention.

I am a big fan of Lippman, but the lead character, Maddie, grated on my nerves with her assumptions that everyone would just help her because she deserves it. I still enjoyed the character development, but this novel wasn’t my favorite.

Laura Lippman never fails! Her novels always pull the reader in. This stand alone is a great mystery that looks at the lives of two women during the 70's , and shows how women were at the whims of men. Looking at race and religion- Lippman writes a mystery of how a young waitress became the Lady in the Lake. Hard to put down!

Lady In The Lake by Laura Lippman
Published June 18, 2019 / by Littoral Librarian

Publication Date July 23, 2019
I love Laura Lippman (particularly her Tess Monaghan mystery series), so I was happy to receive a copy of her latest book, Lady in the Lake, thanks to Harper Collins/William Morrow and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Lippman has taken her Baltimore roots and her experience as a newspaper journalist and based her story in Baltimore in the 1960s. Her protagonist, Madeline (“Maddy”) Schwartz, is a housewife nearing the age of forty who bails out of her humdrum life and pursues the truth behind the murder of a young woman who has been forgotten by the news, the police, basically by everyone…except Maddie.

In 1966, Maddie led the pampered life of an upper-middle-class Jewish housewife, living comfortably with her husband and son…right up until she basically said “F$%k It, I’m Out of Here” and moved out to pursue a more interesting life as her own person, not just someone’s wife and/or mother.

Maddie’s new career begins when she helps Baltimore police find a murdered girl and parlays that into a job at the afternoon newspaper, the Star. She finds another story, that of a missing woman whose body was discovered in the fountain of a city park lake. The victim, Cleo Sherwood, was a young African-American woman who liked to have a good time. Maddie’s investigation of Cleo’s life and death brings her into contact with people including a waitress, a jewelry store clerk, a player for the Baltimore Orioles, a salty older female reporter, and an African-American patrol cop. Maddie’s persistence is admirable, but she has blinders on when she looks beyond her own needs, bringing serious problems for people including a black police officer who cares for her WAY more than she knows.

It’s a great story, with a strong look at the racial and gender issues of the time. It also looks at the newspaper business before it began its decline as a result of the rise of the Internet. It’s another terrific piece of writing by Ms. Lippman. Five stars.

I have enjoyed several Laura Lippman titles in the past, but this was not one I preferred. The characters were engaging and the 60's era setting promised to hook me, but the book and I were just not a good fit. I will certainly continue to seek out new Laura Lippman titles, however.

I keep trying out this author's books, but we just are not the right fit. Other librarians love them and recommend them to me, but the characters just do not have enough redeeming qualities for me to enjoy getting to know. Also, this one in particular was written in a changing POV style that was a challenge for me. I am sure it will do very well, as I know she is a well-liked author, but as all we librarians know, "every book its reader." I will be familiar with it now and can discuss it in readers' advisory for my customers who enjoy this author.

A slow burning mystery thriller with elements of classic noir. A very engaging and engrossing read. A winner!

I have liked every Laura Lippman book I have read so I don’t like having to write this review. I did not like this book even a little. In my opinion, here are the reasons why.

1. The book was a big jumble of information that was hard for me to follow.
2. Minor characters that played no part in the mystery had their own chapters with their thoughts. I could not figure out what that added to the book.
3. I just didn’t like Maddie Schwartz. She had many character flaws and I didn’t like her lack of responsibility to her family.
4. The book explored more of the characters feelings than being a mystery. I wanted a good mystery which is this authors strong suit and I didn’t get it.

I did like the time period the book was written in and the Baltimore history was interesting.