I've enjoyed a number of Laura Lippman's books in the past, but this one didn't work for me at all. I found Maddie Schwartz's story boring, and all the different narrators just felt distracting to me. I'll check out her next book, but I didn't really enjoy this one.

Thanks to Faber & Faber and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

I love Laura Lippman, and she has done it again, penning another Baltimore=based story involving real places, a few real people, and an intriguing storyline.

I particularly enjoyed the way this was layered. For example, if Maddie, the main character around which the story circled, visited a bartender, the next section was told from the bartender's point of view. This allowed the reader to learn more about each character than would have been offered if only Maddie's voice was used. I suppose this was a multi-person book, as it wasn't first person or third person. I found this to be a helpful device in delivering the story.

The story takes place in the 1960s in Baltimore. Maddie Schwartz, in her late thirties, leaves a comfortable marriage a pursues her lifelong ambitions to have a passionate life. She ends up finding work at one of the Baltimore newspapers after she and an acquaintance find the body of a young girl. Maddie also learns about the death of a young African-American woman, and is determined to find the truth about Cleo's life and her subsequent death.

Maddie's pursuit of a meaningful life impacts the lives of many around her, but she doesn't seem to think about consequences of her actions.

Laura Lippman has hit a homer with this book, which is a fitting comment due to the Orioles' success in 1966. I highly recommend this book!

Two socially and ethnically different women are at the center of the story. Maddie Schwartz abruptly leaves her husband and teen-aged son to pursue a career as a newspaper reporter. Cleo Sherwood disappears without a trace leaving behind two young sons. How their lives intersect is told in a complex manner through the eyes of those who knew/know each woman. Many of the chapters are narrated by the myriad of different characters (policemen, waitress, bartender, politicians, family members, salesclerk, a medium, small-time gangsters, reporters to list a few) and the action flips back and forth in time so you need to pay attention. Over the course of a year, the unexpected happens more than once and there are several believable twists which I will not reveal. Fans of Ms. Lippman will be delighted to meet a couple of specific characters (and I will not reveal those either) as well as being enveloped by the aura of Baltimore in the 60s.

Is it a thriller? From the moment you step into this book, you are just confused. Several characters are introduced within a matter of pages and each of them have different tenses to contend with. It feels as though a couple of entirely different stories have been welded together to create one book and it's not one that I can get on board with.

To start with, I have heard of Laura Lippman but have never read any of her books. The beginning of the book was a bit confusing to me as each chapter was voiced by a different character. After a bit, I was able to determine who was who and picked up on the book's flow.

This historical fiction has a reporter want-to-be as the central character intertwined with two murders. Maddie's investigation prowess was a bit lacking due to her greenness. However, her tenacity shines through. There are steps and missteps along the way, which resulted in not expected results.

I am not a prude nor do I have a problem with interracial relationships. I think the author spent too much time on Maddie's sexual relationship.

I quickly read this book even though it was not as captivating as I would have like.

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for an advance copy in exchange for an honest feedback.

this was not one of my favorite of her books, i chose it to read because of the author, i am not fond of historical fiction though this was from 1960 so not so long ago, but the style was old fashioned, meaning why could the writin g and the thinking be sharp even if older. It was an ok story but again, disappointing. I was tempted to not finish it, but did

I have read a couple other books by Laura Lippman that I enjoyed, so I was looking forward to reading this book too. I have to say that this was my least favorite of hers that I've read. This was a crime novel, but it seemed more like historical fiction, so expectations may have had something to do with it. I did enjoy hearing the perspective of all the different characters. Thank you to Netgalley and Faber & Faber for allowing me to read this early in exchange for an honest review.

I have a confession to make. . . this is my first Laura Lippman book. For someone who reads as much as I do, particularly as many thrillers as I do, this is quite a feat. I'm not sure where I went wrong in my life, but I'm SO glad I decided to make better choices because WOW. Lady in the Lake blew me away. What I thought was going to be another run of the mill thriller was 100% not that and instead a beautiful, haunting story set in 1960's Baltimore.

While this novel revolves around several crimes, I wouldn't call it a crime novel exactly. It is a compulsively page-turning recreation of Baltimore in 1966: a time when racial tensions were high, when desegregation was still in process, and a time when the experience of being a woman was drastically changing -- in the workforce, in the home, in the world. Maddie leaves her comfortable, wealthy existence with her husband and son because she wants more out of life than just being someone's wife and mother. When she stumbles upon a young murder victim's body, Maddie goes to work for a newspaper and becomes entwined in several murder investigations.

At heart, this is the story of a woman fighting to make her place in a world that, while changing, is not quite ready for her. The narrative style is unique, told by Maddie about half the time, and interspersed with chapters told by just about every peripheral character you meet. I've seen some reviews saying they found this style confusing, but I loved it and didn't find it hard to follow in the slightest.

This was a solid 4.5 star read for me. I'm solidly on the Laura Lippman train now and can't wait to read more by this talented author. Lady in the Lake comes out next Tuesday, July 23rd. A huge thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my e-ARC copy in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 stars (rounded up to 4). A quick read for the summer.

Set in 1960's Baltimore, Maddie Schwartz, a recent divorcee after almost 20 years of marriage, noses around to help the police solve a missing persons case. She then lands a job at the Star, a local newspaper, where she chases a story to try to solve the case of a missing womans' body that was found in the local fountain.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I really did like the narration style where you get inside the head of many different characters. That was great to get a "real time" perspective from a different character's POV on the same events. A good read for the summer.

Thank you Laura Lippman, Faber & Faber, and Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

#NetGalley #LadyInTheLake

Maddie has been the model upper middle class Jewish housewife of 1960s Baltimore. After a visit from a former classmate, she realizes she wants something else. She leaves her husband and son (who chooses to stay with his father) with hopes of realizing her dream of becoming a newspaper reporter. A chance finding of the body of a missing child provides her first opportunity to try to realize that ambition. A further investigation into the life and death of a young black woman leads Maddie into making some questionable choices while attempting to further her career.

This book is written using an interesting style that I liked. The story alternates between third person account of Maddie and her actions and first person accounts of the various other characters she encounters. The author does a good job capturing the culture and tone of the 1960s. It took a while to build up the story and all of the characters and then the resolution wrapped up very quickly. Unfortunately, I think I lot of readers might find Maddie a rather unlikable character.

The farther I read into this book, the more I liked it. It takes place in Baltimore in the 1960s. I was a little confused by the opening which was the comments of a dead black woman describing seeing Maddie Schwartz with her husband Milton, a lawyer (he looked like his father who the writer had known and liked). Maddie is the main character, who has a very complicated personality. As the story progresses, we find out more and more about Maddie.

Early in the story we see the wife of a lawyer, Maddie, takes care of the house and her son easily, and who effortlessly puts on a dinner party at the last minute for her husband. However, the man her husband has invited, Wallace Wright, was a man Maddie knew in high school (and went to the senior prom with) who had become a well known TV commentator. Wallace was in love with Maddie, but they had had only that one date. That night she thinks about her first love (who her parents didn't know about). She decides to leave her husband on November 30 twenty days after her thirty-seventh birthday.

Maddie is having some money problems on her own, and tries to sell her wedding ring. The jeweler offers her only $500, but it was insured for $2000. She goes home, puts the ring deep into one of her plants, created an appearance of chaos, and runs out to the street screaming for help. A black patrolman (Ferdie) rushes to her. He puts in a call for her, buys her a soda, and walks her home. He tells her it isn't a good neighborhood for her to be in. Two weeks later he's broken her lease and she moves to better apartment and Ferdie helps her break in her new bed. He continues to visit at night over most of the book. As the story goes on we hear more about Maddie's younger life, when she wasn't a boring but beautiful lawyer's wife.

Maddie needs a job and wants to do something important. She gets a job at the Star newspaper, helping out the man on the help desk. When a young girl goes missing, Maddie and the jeweler's sister Judith go looking. Near the end of the arboretum hours, Maddie decides to go to the last trail (perhaps she remembered going parking there), where they find Tessie's body. Maddie decides she should help the police solve Tessie's murder, although she still doesn't get a byline. She interviews the suspect, and finds out he had an accomplice. Later, she begins trying to solve some of the problems brought up by writers to the help column. After someone complains about the lights not working at the fountain in Druid Hill Park. She calls DPW, and they find the body of a black woman, Cleo Sherwood, who has been frozen in the fountain for some time. Maddie finds out she had worked at a black nightclub and goes to interview the family and the nightclub. However, it appears that Cleo doesn't want Maddie interfering.

At the end the story skips to several years later and we find out what has happened with Maddie, Cleo, and Ferdie, as well as the two murderers. Maddie is again a successful woman.

"Alive, I was Cleo Sherwood. Dead, I became the Lady in the Lake.."

Set in Baltimore in the mid ‘60s, Lady in the Lake tackles some of the prominent issues of the era such as racial discrimination, women’s role in society and gender inequality. It is also a story of women trying to make a better and happier life for themselves, forbidden love and secrets.

The story begins with a haunting, mysterious, and foreboding prologue that left me excited about the book and full of questions that I couldn’t wait to have answered.

Told by multiple narrators, the two women whose stories are the focus of this novel, are also the narrators we see the most. Cleo Sherwood is a single mother who is trying to get ahead and create a good life for herself and her two sons. She had moved out of her parents house leaving her boys there, although she visited regularly, and was working in a local bar. She disappears on New Year's Eve after being seen on a date with a mystery man but no-one other than her family seem to care.

Maddie Schwartz is the typical beautiful and perfect housewife but she feels bored and trapped. She leaves her husband after almost two decades of marriage and is trying to start again, which for her means an exciting relationship with an unsuitable man and getting a job as an assistant at a local newspaper. When Cleo’s body is found she becomes determined to find out what happened to her despite warnings that not only does no-one care, but she will get herself and others hurt if she pursues it. Wanting not only justice but her name on a story, she decides to ignore the warnings and continue her investigations.

The story unfolded in a way I didn’t expect but really enjoyed. I liked that I could never figure out who had killed Cleo and that most of the twists took me by surprise. I loved the historical aspect of the book and the author had me immersed in the era, especially when reading the parts narrated by Maddie and Cleo.
The abundance of narrators did sometimes feel too much, but most of them did give a perspective that added to the story and gave you possible clues so I could see a reason to give them a voice. The chapter narrated by Cleo’s eldest son was particularly heartbreaking and I was in tears reading it. It was a great reminder of Cleo as a mother as that side of her was overlooked by most people as they chose instead to focus on the more salacious side of her character to paint her in the light that suited them.

I’ve wanted to read a novel by this author for a long time so I was thrilled to have the chance to review this ARC and I can’t wait to read more of her work. Lady in the Lake reminds us how difficult it was for women of any race to make a better life for themselves outside of the social conventions in a time not so long ago. An intriguing and alluring novel that I would definitely recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley, Faber & Faber and Laura Lippman for the chance to read this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This was good but not the page turner I was hoping for. I was expecting more of a mystery but it read more like a character driven human interest story. The ending felt contrived

I really enjoyed this book. It took me a little while to get in, but I was hooked once the mystery kicked in.
I liked the writing and the historical aspect of it, as I love historical fiction. The mystery, the twist were a good bonus.
I'd read from Lipman again.
Thanks a lot Netgalley and the publisher for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

I LOVED this book. I loved the way the story was told. I loved the picture it conjured of a time when so much was different and yet so many of the struggles that the characters went through are still alarmingly relevant today. I loved the way it was about so many things, race and gender and what stories are, how who tells them shapes what we consider important. I loved the different voices interspersed with Maddie's story, the different perspectives they gave. And I loved Maddie herself. She isn't a 'nice' woman. She's willing to pursue what she wants at others' expense, to use her looks and charm to get her way. And that's what makes her so wonderful. Struggling against the constraints of the society she was born into, she makes her life her own. And I loved her for it.

One of my favourite books of the year so far. Highly recommended.

When her husband invites home for dinner a man she knew in high school, 37 year old Maddie is jolted out of her comfortable world of being a Jewish housewife and mother to a teenage son. It's 1966, Baltimore is changing and Maddie wants to be out in the world, living. She moves out, gets an apartment and a secret lover and decides that she wants to become a journalist. But she's too old and the wrong gender to get a job at a newspaper the traditional way, so when the disappearance of a little girl gives her an opportunity, she grabs it. But when her dream job turns into her being a glorified secretary, she finds another missing persons case to dig into, a woman whose body is found dumped in a public fountain. But Maddie is an outsider just learning her job there are people who have a vested interest in keeping her quiet.

Maddie is a fantastic character. She's by turns yearning and manipulative, honest and willing to do what it takes to get what she wants, independent and insecure. I'm not sure I'd like her if I met her, but she is a fascinating person to follow around.

Laura Lippman is that rare kind of bestseller writer, the kind that is constantly improving their work. She's always been good at putting together a suspenseful plot and paired that with solid writing, but she's been expanding her reach. Yes, this is set in Baltimore, as most of Lippman's books are, but this one deals with both Civil Rights issues and political corruption. There's a lot more depth here than usual and Lippman is up for it, writing a crime novel that works well in its genre, while also providing a novel rich in historical detail and nuanced characters.

What a nice find. This was the first book I've read from this author and I really enjoyed it. The story was different from anything I've read recently and really captured my attention. It was so well written and the characters were fantastic.

Thank you NetGalley for a ARC book for an honest review. This book is hard for me to review. It is so many things: a mystery, historical fiction, 1960's lifestyle, woman breaking into newspapers, racial tensions, and treatment of people. Maddie Schwartz decides to leave her husband of 18 years and go off on her own. In the 1960's women were expected to be happy little homemakers and raise the children. She works at breaking into the newspaper business by being present at the conclusion of a search for a missing girl and reporting a lighting problem at a fountain. Maddie is a difficult person to like or care about. She does not seem all that upset when her son choses not to live with her and she is cold to her lover. She is a very self centered person.

I did like how Maddie learned that she could not be a meek if she wanted to learn the newspaper business. She had to use her feminine assets to her advantage and act like a male if she was going to get ahead in the business. She had to push herself into situations in order to get ahead. The newspaper would have been just as happy if she spent her time as a secretary. The 1960's would not have been a good era for any woman wanting to be anything other than a housewife, secretary, nurse, or teacher.

The history of Baltimore was an interesting aspect of this book. The racial, political, and religious history was also interesting. The book was written with some of the characters having asides about their part in the overall story and some of these were more interesting than Maddie's story. I was sorry some of these were not better developed.

This was not my favorite book by Laura Lippman but it is worth reading for the historical insights into the 1960's.

An epic journey through 1960s Baltimore. I can absolutely see this being picked up as a television miniseries or anthology series. I could see an episode for every character that is given an aside to tell their tale and what the city is like for them. This book takes delightful detours into lives of many folks that cross the path of the main character we return to over and over.

Many of the characters author Laura Lippman focuses on in this tour de force were marginalized at the time; black men and women, divorcees, and Jews. Many of the attitudes portrayed in the novel still prevail today, even if society has "allowed" for changes. (I know we say we're accepting, but face it, black employees are still often passed over for promotion. If you met a divorced woman and found her kids did not live with her, you would wonder why.) For all we can say we've changed, we're also still very much the same. I don't know how much introspection Lippman intended this to create, but for this reader it definitely drives home the point that even as we move forward, our society clings to the past.

I stepped back in time thinking I was getting a mystery novel and got so much more. Does our heroine, Maddie eventually solve the mysteries she's tracking? Yes, but there is so much more than the solve. The climax is both surprising and gripping, recoloring the way you've seen the entire mystery. The wrap up (a bit of a "where are they now" that doesn't always work for me) is satisfying closure.

IMHO, Laura Lippman earns the crown for historical novel of the year. 5 stars!

This book was set back in the 1960's from the perspective of Madeline “Maddie” Schwartz. The first few chapters confused me a bit going back and forth between another women's narrative and Maddie but once I saw where the story was going and all the mystery surrounding it, I couldn't put it down. I was quite shocked at the ending and so excited they ended in the future (I love to see how the main character's lives end up!). I definitely recommend.