I loved how each chapter represented a different perspective from a different character. This made for a new outlook on what was sort of a classic murder mystery.

What a great book. Ive been reading Ms. Lippman since her first Tess book and she keeps getting better.

My favorite aspect of this book is the alternating narrative from the characters we meet in this book. The majority are from the Lady in the Lake but there are police officers, a bartender, a psychic and more. It's a wonderfully inventive way to get a fresh perspective as one reads.

Maddie Schwartz decides to leave her husband and strike out on her own. She moves into an apartment in a not so nice area of town or at least where nice Jewish ladies don't live. She makes a younger friend and one night they discover the body of a missing child. Everything leads from there. She meets a man, starts a new career and in the course of that job she helps find another body, The Lady in the Lake.

Segregated life, gay men hiding their private lives, Baltimore underworld all make their presence known in this book which takes place in the late 60's.

Excellent read.

"Lady in the Lake" centres on Maddie Schwartz, a Baltimore housewife who wants more from life than catering dinner parties for her husband's colleagues and visiting the country club. She walks away from her marriage in order to live a more meaningful life, and in doing so, manages to secure herself a job at the city's newspaper. Maddie is given what is tantamount to grunt work, until she finds the story that gives her the opportunity to make her name: a young black woman named Cleo Sherwood whose body has been found in a local lake.

The novel follows Maddie's investigation into Cleo's death, with chapters narrated by Maddie interspersed with chapters in the voices of other characters who have something to offer in terms of perspective or insight, some minor characters, some major.

This one isn't about quick thrills or cliffhanger chapter-endings - it's a finely-written slow burn of a novel which explores so much more than the death of its titular character - gender and race in 1960s Baltimore, interracial relationships, and the quest for one woman to not only find answers but to find herself.

(A copy of this book was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest and impartial review).

Lady in the Lake is the latest stand-alone novel from Laura Lippman and tells the story of the death of a young woman in 1960s Baltimore from the perspective of several different characters. The primary narrator is Maddie Schwarz, a housewife who recently left her husband to explore life on her own. Maddie is a complicated character, and not entirely likeable, but I admired her for figuring out what she wanted and how to get it.

Lippman does a brilliant job of shifting perspectives from one character to another and of evoking a different time in her beloved Baltimore. While I would not characterize this as a page turner, the book skillfully weaves a compelling mystery with the stories of what it was like for each character to exist in the turbulent period of the 1960s.

Thank you to Faber & Faber and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Laura Lippman does it again! Perfectly recreating mid-1960s Baltimore, and the social and racial strata that defined who you were and what possibilities were open to you, this compelling story follows the unlikely liberation of Maddie, a young-ish Jewish housewife who leaves her husband and teenage son, to live on her own and try to become a reporter. Having parlayed knowledge of a child murder case (she and a friend happened to find the body) into an unsatisfying job at a local paper, she sees the case of the "Lady of the Lake" as her big ticket. Unfortunately, her naivété about the social and racial implications of digging into said case, and her dogged determination to uncover the facts, get her into hot water.

The storytelling is intelligent, the characters complex and well-written, and I loved the plot device of having narration change from chapter to chapter between Maddie, the "Lady of the Lake" and assorted characters with whom Maddie comes into contact, telling their own stories to give a wider perspective. This is a stand-alone, but I did get a chuckle out of how Lippman managed to work the meeting, courtship and marriage of Tess Monaghan's parents, who is one of my favorite female PIs, into the story.

Highly recommended!

This was a fascinating noir blend! I have been a fan of Lippman’s previous novels, but this takes the cake! Think if Betty Draper from a Mad Men was the Girl on the Train. A delightful read

Another good book from Laura Lippman. Great ending, a nice twist. Although I wished there was more Cleo and less Madeline. And I'm not sure if all the additional POVs needed to be there, though it was interesting to see how two different people perceived the same situation. Would have liked more on the Tessie Fine case too.

Thank Netgalley and the publiser for the opportunity to review this book.Maddie Schwartz is a wife a mother in 1966 hosting fabulous dinner parties. But she wants more. Maddie leaves her husband and teenage son and finds a
job as a clerk for a Baltimore newspaper. Soon she becomes obsessed about the body of a woman,Cleo Sherwood found in a lake. Maddie begins to investigate Cleo's life and friends and family. The author provides insight and intrigue by switching voices throughout the story. Soon I was just as invested as Maddie in finding the truth about Cleo Sherwood’s life and death.

The 1960s were a tumultuous time socially, and racially in the United States. These themes were woven into the story adding another layer of intrigue. As Maddie searches for answers and finds her own way the truth ultimately is revealed. Maddie was a complex character embodying all the social and political unrest of the time.



Laura Lippman is a wonderful storyteller. This did not disappoint. There were twists and turns.
And surprises I didn't see coming.

a netgalley that I picked up because I had read some books by the author and the summary was intriguing. A married woman leaves her husband and starts investigating the disappearances of a child and a young woman in Baltimore in the 1960s. She's struck by the attention the missing white child receives compared to the black woman, and enthusiastically tries to get involved, partly for her sense of justice, but mostly because she sees a way to change her life. This was a fascinating picture of a city on the verge of substantial change, from the new opportunities for black policemen to young Jewish women trying to break away from the rules on marrying within the community. It felt real, perhaps most when the women characters talked about their problems getting into careers, and how they coped. I loved the picture of the hard bitten reporter who had taken over one of the women's bathrooms and converted it into her own office to find a way to adapt in an unwelcoming newsroom. It just didn't seem to have much of a sense of direction, and I got distracted from it several times by more pacey reads.

There are many different ways an author can grab readers from the very first page. Sometimes it's an intriguing first line that draws you in, sometimes it's a stark incident or piece of action that tractor-beams you straight into a propulsive narrative. And sometimes its something subtler but even more powerful (in the right hands): just the pure, mesmerising quality of the writing, the voice.

LADY IN THE LAKE, the latest standalone from the superb Laura Lippman, is a pretty great example of the latter. From the first lines we know we're in the hands of a master storyteller as we're enticed deep into 1960s Baltimore by the voice of Cleo Sherwood, a poor young black woman who's recalling the first time time she saw Maddie Schwartz, then a finely dressed Jewish housewife.

Maddie Schartz would go on to create a whole host of problems for a lot of people, including Cleo, who might have preferred to have been forgotten, despite all the tragedies in her young life.

Cleo and Maggie, two mothers in 1960s Baltimore, different in many ways but both shackled by prejudice. Both woman also hungered for more in their lives, and would risk a lot to chase it.

Perhaps too much.

Unlike Cleo, who goes missing and is rather forgotten and becomes the 'Lady in the Lake' when a body finally emerges from a fountain, Maddie Schwartz gets a chance to be more.

LADY IN THE LAKE follows a pivotal year in Maddie’s life as she flees her stable but stale marriage, trading affluence for independence, domesticity for a search for passion and meaning.

After helping the police find a missing white girl whose story filled the newspapers, Maddie is looking for another story to help her get a foothold in the male-dominated field of journalism, and turns her attention to Cleo, a black woman whose story has been left untold by the white press.

Lippman intercuts Maddie's narrative with rich vignettes, first-person perspectives from a variety of people that Maddie encounters along the way. These chapters really texture the novel and weave together to form a stunning portrait of Baltimore life in that era - the place and the people living in it.

The multiple perspectives also give the reader differing views on how Maddie and her efforts are seen by herself and others. Readers themselves may have mixed feelings about Maddie, and some of the decisions she makes. She is a complex, fascinating character, and has an interesting arc from bored and rather repressed housewife to independent, ambitious career woman unafraid of breaking rules. Throughout it all, Cleo lingers as a contemptful specter as Maddie throws stones into several ponds, oblivious to the dangerous ripples she may be creating in her pursuit of a story to make her name.

Overall, Lippman has forged a sublime, suspenseful tale that flows along so wonderfully that it perhaps obscures its own genius. I was reminded of watching a brilliant musician onstage, or perhaps a particularly special athlete on the field - in each case they can make things that are incredibly difficult look deceptively simple. There's a flow and ease because of their mastery, and we're so entranced but what we see or hear that it's easy to overlook the skill involved. Lippman is that level.

This is a stylish, rich tale from one of the crime genre's very best.

I've been wanting to read a book by this author for awhile now and the synopsis for this one sounded good. so I finally took the plunge. While this book can be classified as historical fiction, it also fits in the mystery and women's fiction genres. I ended up really enjoying this novel and look forward to reading other books by Laura Lippman.

It's 1966 and Madeline "Maddie" Schwartz. lives in Baltimore with her husband and teenage son. It might seem like she has it all but she wants more than just playing the role of dutiful housewife. In search of living a more meaningful life, she leaves her husband and eventually finds work at a local newspaper. She is on the low end of the totem pole there but she thinks the right story will get her some attention. Maddie is particularly interested in finding out what exactly happened to Cleo Sherwood, a young African American woman who was found dead in the fountain of a city park lake. However her eagerness to find out the truth could come at an awful price for some.

I was surprised at how many different things the story was able to touch on such as race, religion, women in the workforce, the newspaper industry, and politics to name a few. For me what really drove the story was the mystery of Cleo Sherwood more so than the Maddie "finding herself" storyline. While Maddie's perspective was predominately featured, other characters, including Cleo gave their spin on events throughout the book. For the most part I liked this method of telling the story especially as it really demonstrated how Maddie's actions affected other people. However, a few characters really had nothing much to do with advancing the plot so even though the appearances were brief, they just felt unnecessary.

This is the type of book in which there is a little bit of something for everyone and what each reader takes away from it might be different. Definitely recommend especially if the 1960s Baltimore setting peaks your interest like it did for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance digital copy in exchange for an honest review!

I have had this book for a while and decided to read it, but it's really not my kind of book. It starts off too slow and characters' problems are too first world. The book made me laugh because it's supposed to be about Jewish people, but the family that supposedly keeps kosher cooks with Campbell's mushroom soup...which is not kosher at all or pareve.

A pretty good mystery. I enjoyed that this has a historical aspect to it. However, the ghost voice in the narrative I could have done without. An entertaining read, but I prefer Lippman’s Tess Monaghan series.

I read this book on a plane trip and it kept me entertained the whole time. I can't believe I haven't paid more attention to this author! The story was cleverly plotted and engaging and I kept guessing until the end. Recommended!

I have always loved Laura Lippman, and this book is another solid read.

The book centers on middle aged Madeline, a Baltimore socialite living in 1960s Baltimore. By the end of the year, Madeline is divorced conducting a secret affair, and decides to become a newspaper reporter after finding a body and being interviewed. From her new life, Madeline latches onto the case of missing gorgeous woman who had been forgotten by the mainstream press due to her race and lifestyle.

The book is told through a series of vignettes which change the point of view every few pages and offer the reader insight into the main characters, Baltimore's history, or offer an insight into the world of human relations. Both Maddie and the missing woman, Cleo, offer differing views on so much, but have so many similarities as strong woman bucking the system they are forced into in the 1960s.

I found this book great. I loved the writing and the way Ms. Lippman drew realistic and interesting characters in just a few short paragraphs. I was so sorry to have to say goodbye to both women at the end of the book.

Thanks to the publisher, NetGalley.com, and the author for my advanced copy.

A very good book, fascinating and engrossing.
It's a good thriller and it's book with a fascinating description of a historical period.
I loved the well written cast of characters and the plot.
I look forward to reading other books by this author.
Recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I was introduced to Laura Lippman's writing via Sunburn, and I was excited to read Lady in the Lake. This thriller takes on complex themes like interracial relationships in the 60s, sexism, and more as told through a multi-narrator focus. It's a fascinating novel that is sure to captivate readers this summer.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to.

Maddie Schwartz, hiding secrets from her past, is unhappy in marriage.. Leaving her husband, she sets out on her own to realize her dream of being a writer. In doing so, she exchanges comfort for independence. Inadvertently she finds herself involved in reporting two Baltimore murders, one high-profile and one dismissed as nothing special. Through the multi-voices of her characters Laura Lippman slowly peels away the layered story of the victims, murderers, and all affected by these crimes. The reader follows twists and turns and is often surprised at how the story plays out. This standalone novel engages from the first page.

I enjoyed the writing style - the narrator was the deceased woman the main character was investigating. I'm new to this author - so I'm not sure if she usually has plot movement in the beginning of the chapter followed by a character revealing more about themselves. At times, I was confused as to why a character received additional time as they were not critical to the plot. I thought this book did a great job illustrating the social and political strife in the last 60s. Discovering how Cleo died seemed anticlimactic and did not feel like it was the focus of the book.
Overall, I enjoyed the story and writing style.