Here's a book for a quick trip (a one-hour flight or just an afternoon waiting for the repairman to arrive). Laura Lippman's style is fresh and funny.

In "The Girl in the Green Raincoat" the protagonist, Tess Monaghan, is on bed rest because of her at-risk pregnancy. She is bored, often grumpy and uncomfortable. She watches people walk their dogs. One striking dog walker suddenly goes missing, and Tess is even more disconcerted to see the dog running by trailing its leash.

Though the mystery is not very deep, the plot is twisted enough to offer some surprises. Lippman's use of third-person narration allows us to follow characters Tess would have no way of seeing, stuck as she is in the sun-room on a chaise.

The Baltimore setting adds local color, the subsidiary characters range from charming to demented. This short book (under 200 pages) is entertaining enough for a quick read and welcome diversion.