PI Tess Monaghan has recently recovered from a traumatizing brush with death, and her bank account needs some replenishing. She accepts a request from Baltimore furrier to locate his wife, who has vanished, taking their children with her. He's broken hearted, and is willing to think only the best of his young wife, even though he knows all about her family's lurid history. Within a few days, Tess uncovers facts that explain the truth of Natalie's disappearance.

By a Spider's Thread is a fairly routine crime novel. Tess is a feisty character, and her client's obvious devotion to his religion and his family impels her to wrestle with her own fear of intimacy and her ignorance of the Jewish half of her own heritage. It's an interesting story, but to read author Lippman at her best, check out her stand alone novel, Every Secret Thing.