Hardly Knew Her

by Laura Lippman, Linda Emond (Reading), François Battiste (Reading)

New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman has been hailed as one of the best crime fiction writers in America today, winning virtually every major award in the genre. The author of the enormously popular series featuring Baltimore P.I. Tess Monaghan as well as three critically lauded stand-alone novels, Lippman now turns her attention to short stories—and reveals another level of mastery.

For people who have yet to listen to Lippman, get ready to experience the spellbinding power of "one of today's most pleasing storytellers, hailed for her keen psychological insights and her compelling characterizations," (San Diego Union-Tribune), who has "invigorated the crime fiction arena with smart, innovative, and exciting work" (George Pelecanos). As for longtime devotees of her multiple award-winning novels, you'll discover that you hardly know her.

This audio contains the individual short story “Hardly Knew Her”, from the collection Hardly Knew Her.

Genres: Short Stories, Mystery, Fiction, Audiobook, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Anthologies

Audiobook

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Since Laura Lippman’s debut, she has been recognized as a distinctive voice in mystery fiction and named one of the “essential” crime writers of the last 100 years. Stephen King called her “special, even extraordinary,” and Gillian Flynn wrote, “She is simply a brilliant novelist.” Her books have won most of the major awards in her field and been translated into more than twenty-five languages. She lives in Baltimore and New Orleans with her teenager.

Reviews

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent!

[Krok Zero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Laura Lippman is Mrs. David Simon, which makes her the First Lady of The Wire, which is almost reason enough to check out her stuff -- but she's accumulated a fair amount of buzz in her own right, her status as a member of the crime fiction elite confirmed by George Pelecanos's fawning introduction to this short story collection. I picked this up as a first Lippman simply as a little vacation from novel overload, and I definitely plan to check out some of her longformers in the future.

This wasn't really what I expected. It's is a tonal centaur, Pelecanos meets James M. Cain, half street-level realism and half gun-crazy melodrama. Clearest example of this mash-up is the first story, "The Crack Cocaine Diet," about a couple of white suburban ho-bags who go slumming in black Baltimore to procure material for the titular weight-loss plan. Then there are twists and the violence, when it comes, comes from an entirely unexpected place -- let's just say that Lippman's wry appropriation of "Girls Gone Wild" as the title of the book's first section proves apt. The impact is dulled in later stories when it becomes clear that Lippman is going for similar twists many times over -- sudden, often implausible acts of violence capping off otherwise basically realistic stories set mostly in and around Lippman's native Bodymore, Murdaland. It's a weird effect, and sometimes it completely fails, but at least it's different. Like her hubby, Lippman has an eye for details of both place and character (they were both journalists before turning to fiction), and a smooth, readable style.

Best thing here is the novella, "Scratch a Woman," that concludes the collection -- revisiting a character from an earlier story, a high-class prostitute living a double life as a bourgeois soccer mom, and adding to the mix her fucked-up half-sister. It's an apotheosis of the bad-girl melodrama that has been running through the whole book. Whip-ass. (I wish there were a better word than melodrama, because it doesn't really get at Lippman's tone, which is more matter-of-fact -- but the content is melodramatic, so I dunno.) Also, you get a few nice breaks from the melodrama in the form of stories featuring Lippman's recurring P.I. Tess Monaghan -- I was particularly taken with "The Shoeshine Man's Regrets," a mini-mini-masterpiece in which Tess gets accidentally involved in a decades-old murder case. I'd also afford masterpiece status to "The Babysitter's Code," which might be the only story here in which Chekhov's gun goes unfired.

Yeah, good stuff. The most engaging story collection I've read in a while, come to think of it.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even if you are a reader that doesn’t enjoy reading short stories I think Hardly Knew Her will change your mind. The stories are so good that you will wish you were reading a book instead of just a short story.

I didn’t find even one of the stories that I didn’t like but I did have my favorites. The story of Mona who increased her income by becoming a porn star was intriguing. Mona was not young and this just didn’t seem to be the occupation to take on late in life but the bills must be paid and Mona liked nice things.

The story of Heloise who lives in two different worlds, her public world and her private world. She lives in a world where she has a son and is an outstanding mother. Then there is her business that her son knows nothing about. Heloise runs a very elite dating service. When Heloise’s half-sister gets herself in a bit of a bind it makes for a very entertaining story.

There is a neat introduction written by George Pelecanos. The sections are entitled “Girls Gone Wild”, “Other Cities, Not My Own”, “My Baby Walks the Streets of Baltimore” and “Scratch a Woman”. There is something in Hardly Knew Her for everyone.

Grab a copy and I feel sure you will enjoy it. I know I did.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've never read mystery short stories before, so this was an interesting view into a genre I don't read a lot, though I have a lot of respect for the meticulous plotting. I do love Lippman's use of Baltimore, and this was the PERFECT book for sitting in the jury duty waiting room today, but there's still something about her style that I don't quite love.

And now I shall put my finger on it: her characters all seem to speak to me in the voices of the women at my gym. They are the voices of Roland Park and Guilford housewives, with a little extra time and money. These women seem perfectly nice, but they speak loudly to each other on the elliptical machines about private schools and four star dinners. They follow their own training circuits in the warmup room, one doing lunges, another performing some strange maneuver involving a large rubber ball, all the while discussing their upcoming vacations in the Bahamas and Florida and Ocean City. They make me feel like an outsider, but I don't have any desire to be part of their world. It's a different Baltimore than the one I know. Lippman clearly loves the city too, but we love different aspects. So I'll read one of her books every once in a while, but I don't think I'm ever going to love her.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always enjoyed Laura Lippman's novels--in part, I think, because they are set in Baltimore, Maryland and the city usually becomes a major character in each book. This book, however, proved that, in truth, I did hardly know her. In this collection of short stories, Lippman extends her range and her subject matter. While many of the stories are set either in Baltimore and its suburbs or at least in Maryland, some venture as far south as New Orleans and as far east as Dublin, Ireland. Some of the stories charmed, some shocked. I really wasn't prepared for two stories about a high end call girl who lives in a dual life--and one of them is as a single mother of a 9 year old son living a soccer mom life in an upscale suburb. Or how about the story of the 60 something woman who lives in Leisure World (which by the way is about 6 miles from where my parents live and I know people who live there. I will never be able to look at them again) and finds employment in slightly kinky sex tapes. Call me unprepared for that one. Laura Lippman, I like your novels, I love your short stories. Keep them coming.

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rarely find crime anthologies satisfying. Maybe it's the various voices, or the lack of a cohesive theme, but they just don't work for me. This one is completely different, because all the stories are by one of my favourite crime authors and because there is one central theme: women who are just a bit twisted (OK, sometimes a lot twisted) but who survive victorious because they are strong. Some of the stories were shocking, some a bit gentler, but they all made a great read. This was an exceptionally good collection of noir short stories.

[Sabrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laura Lippman is such a master of writing women who aren’t especially likeable, doing morally questionable things, and making me root for them. Murderers aren’t criminal masterminds, they’re average people trying to get through the day without worrying too much about being “good” or “bad” in the eyes of others—or the law.

These stories display Lippman’s talent and give some context to some of her novels (notably And When She Was Good). A solid collection of short stories.

Read this if you like any Laura Lippman’s novels.

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've never been a fan of short stories--I am generally of the mind that they do not have time to have enough depth of plot or character to make them interesting. Hardly Knew Her blew that opinion completely out of the water for me--each and every one of these stories immediately engaged me with characters that left lasting impressions. Lippman introduces some seriously off-kilter people who chose to do extraordinary things in completely matter of fact ways that surprise the reader again and again. The characters are diverse--a young black man, a suburban housewife, a working class contractor-- even her popular detective Tess Monaghan stars in two of the stories. My favorites are the two stories that involve the same high end madam leading a double life as, literally, a soccer mom--one is a short story and one is actually a novella (a nice cap to the collection originally written for the Mystery Writers of American annual anthology). It was fascinating to see the character development from one to the other (and to read Lippmans afterwords comments about that character). To quote George Pelecanos, who wrote the introduction to this book, "these stories tell actual stories. Laura, thankfully, is not afraid of plot." I HIGHLY recommend this book, though be warned it does contain some graphic violence and several sexual references.

[Kaethe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Baltimore noir. Lippman creates some memorably awful characters, and at least one, Heloise, who isn't awful at all. To my surprise, I really enjoyed the bits starring Tess Monaghan, even though I haven't read any of that series.

Library copy.

[Shannon M (Canada) · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are several great short stories in this book; all are good, but some are better than others. The one that I think is the best is “The Crack Cocaine Diet”. This story is hilarious and deadly at the same time — an “O. Henry” style masterpiece.

[Jacob Dzik · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read a few books by Mrs. Lippman and liked most but this is by far my favorite thing I have read by her. The story “One True Love” was my favorite and the novella was one of the best I’ve read in a while. She takes what you believe are ordinary people and then shows you their deepest secrets and makes it so realistic. Highly recommended.

[Cam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short story… about a father with a gambling problem and a daughter that seeks revenge.

[Danielle Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best collection of short stories I have ever read.

[Dawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was a bit skeptical about this book after realizing that the author is a crime writer. I haven't read any of her other books and really haven't read any crime fiction. The thing that disappointed me about this book wasn't the writing--it was actually fairly well written and LOL in many places. The thing that disappointed me was that most of the stories end with a character being murdered. It reminded me a lot of the stories that I used to write when I was new to the story writing genre, where the story depends on shock value. After the first 3 stories ended this way, I continued to read expecting that someone would be dead, and then when someone wouldn't die, I would be pleasantly surprised. These were the best stories. Almost all of the stories are about women who are very attractive and who use sex to get what they want from men and out of life. But after the 6th or 7th story that ended with a death, I wasn't compelled to keep reading. There are a lot of interesting premises, detailed here:

The Crack Cocaine Diet: 2 girls decide to go on a cocaine diet, 1 girl ends up killing the drug dealer, claiming self defense, then later the 2nd girl pushes her off a bridge because she was sleeping with girl 2's boyfriend. Yikes.

What He Needed: A woman leaves her husband despite his insistence that he will kill himself if she ever leaves him. She dissolves a bunch of sleeping pills in his bourbon, so that it looks like he committed suicide, and collects a hefty life insurance.

Dear Penthouse Forum (A first draft): Actually written by a female serial killer who picks up guys, kills them, and keeps a little something to remember them by.

The Baby-Sitter's Code: Didn't end with a murder! About a baby-sitter who envies the life of a rich, young, suburban mother married to a much older man.

Hardly Knew Her: Started out really, really good! It's about a tomboy teenager whose dad is addicted to gambling and is always hawking their stuff. When he steals a family heirloom, the girl goes to extreme lengths to get it back. But then it ends in murder...

Femme Fatale: A woman in her late 60's who has always depended on her looks and has married well (5 times) because of them, gets involved with a fetish porn director. It didn't end with a murder, but I really have a hard time buying the premise.

One True Love: My favorite story. It's about a woman who runs an escort service that caters to wealthy clients. She's able to afford an expensive house in the suburbs and can send her son to private school. She's at his soccer game when she recognizes one of the dad's as one of her former personal clients. It didn't end with a murder!

Pony Girl: Hot girls at a Mardi Gras party murder a creep who follows them.

Arm and the Woman: Suburban housewife becomes sexually involved with another housewife and gets her to murder her husband for the money. Straight from a Lifetime movie, yikes...

Honor Bar: Woman is dumped by boyfriend while in Ireland. She starts running up a huge hotel bill on his credit card, picks up a new guy and realizes he's swindling her. So she murders him.

A Good Fuck Spoiled: Guy murders his mistress to shut her up.

Easy As A-B-C: A contractor has an affair with one of his clients whose house he is restoring. He ends up murdering her when he finds out she has another boyfriend.

These last two stories are written from the POV of men who seem incapable of doing anything wrong at all, let alone committing murder. But it's not at all surprising when they do it. I really think the author could have done so much more with these stories. It's too bad she felt compelled to end most of them in the same way.

[Elena Santangelo · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got through 4 discs but finally gave up on these short stories. The narrators were decent (though one was a little too soft spoken), and the writing was very good, but the stories were all very much alike. The protagonists were mostly white women who don't seem to have to worry, for good reasons and bad, where their money was coming from. They were all self-centered, hard, uncaring, and quite a few made homophobic comments. Most spoke like high school-aged bad girls. In none of the stories I heard did one of their characters develop in a good way. There was absolutely nothing to make me like these characters enough to care about what happened to them.

[Shawna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was drawn to Laura Lippman's work because I know she is married to David Simon, who helped to create some of the most compelling and complex drama that has ever been brought to the screen, in my opinion. Since Lippman had the same background, Baltimore Sun writer turned author, I figured I'd be in for more of the same. While Lippman is a talented writer, her stories all come to the same conclusion. After the first few stories it was not difficult to guess what end the characters would come to -- female protagonists who were not afraid to commit murder to get what they want. It's a cheap way to write, too easy a device, and it gets redundant. One story, called "Black-Eyed Susan" seemed to be setting up a unique situation with an enterprising Baltimore family who made money off the Preakness, but alas it evitably fled into the same predicitable (and highly improbable) conclusion as all the other stories.

If you are looking for pure escapism this is an enjoyable collection, however I was looking for variety of plot and that bleak Baltimore realism that highlights every character's humanity that I had come to love in David Simon's work.

[Vicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of short stories that I found to be marginally interesting. I enjoyed the Tess Monaghan stories as well as the fictional newspaper article about Tess. Two of the other short stories featured the lead character (Heloise) from Lippman's standalone book "And When She Was Good". Another of the stories featured a young babysitter named Terri who takes a gun from the house where she is sitting, which is a major plot point involving a character named Perri in "To the Power of Three." I presume these stories were earlier works that she expanded upon later in her novels. I found those connections to be interesting. However, quite a few of these stories are quite "dark" in tone, pretty much all of them centered around a female character who ends up committing some heinous act without remorse. If you like Lippman's novels (as I do) but haven't read the short stories, you haven't really missed much.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Again with the half stars, GoodReads: I'd like to give this 2.5 really. It had its highs and lows. For me, I disliked the Tess Monaghan portions because I, having never read one of those books, have no vested interest in the PI. Lippman's other stories were hit or miss. I thought it started off strong, with some shining moments of comedy. Eventually though, they all became formulaic with each one containing a surprising murder of sorts. Overall, it was enjoyable to listen to--didn't pander, was genuinely funny at times, and had brief enough stories that they didn't drag.

[Sue · Rating 2 out of 5]

I checked out these short stories because I like Lippman's Tess Monaghan series so much. The weird thing about these stories is that after you read a few, they become predictable. Most of them revolve around a seeming normal person murdering someone they know because they've become an inconvenience. The stories are described as mysteries, but they really aren't. You know who does it in every one. The stories are more about how to get away with murder, as that is what happens in most of them. If I were Lippman's husband, I'd be sleeping with one eye open!

[Robin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I personally thought that these stories were vapid and boring. So much effort went into trying to fill them with shocking content that the stories kind of fell, like a poorly pitched tent. While reading them you expect ends to fit the build up, instead they fizzle, or simply drop off. I would have gladly settled for hitting a wall, at least that is abrupt and solid. I did finish it though it was very tempting to stop half way through.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories are knockouts - Lippman's talent has really blossomed over the last few years, and this collection is a great introduction to her work. She proves her that she's a master at closing a story in a way that startles and leaves you a little breathless.

[Tracy Robertson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm halfway through and liking it a lot. I'm a fan of short stories with twisted characters, and this is up my alley.

[Susan Oleksiw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laura Lippman is a master of the mystery/crime fiction genre, and in this collection of short stories she shows off her range of skill and imagination. In 17 stories, we meet almost every type of female, from the beleaguered housewife to the high-end prostitute, the baby sitter and the disabled woman protected by her brother. The range is great, and the stories snappy, sharp, and engaging.

The first in the collection, "The Crack Cocaine Diet," sets the standard for voice and twists when two high school girls set out to lose weight before the prom, to show the boys who've dumped them just how much they gave up. In the second story, "What He Needed," a wife who lives with a tight-fisted husband decides to take action. In the second half of the collection, in "Honor Bar," a young woman not quite certain of her age is taken on a trip to Dublin, where she is dumped by her lover. She takes her revenge. In the last story, and the longest of the collection, "Scratch a Woman," a professional prostitute finds herself in close proximity to her half sister, who is everything the protagonist didn't want to be. But the half-sister's life gets complicated when she acts on impulse and finds her shocking behavior has been witnessed by an unknown person. She turns to her professional sister for help.

[Tiffany Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prepare to be shocked and entertained in this collection of short stories by Laura Lippman. The stories are organized under 4 headings: Girls Gone Wild; Other Cities, Not My Own; My Baby Walks the Streets of Baltimore (not about prostitutes); and a 50-page story, Scratch a Woman. Probably my favorite stories were those that included characters from other novels: Tess Monaghan makes an appearance in three of the stories, as well as Heloise Lewis from And When She Was Good. I loved getting snapshots of different times in their lives, and learning more backstory. The protagonists range from upper middle-class white women (the usual focus) to black and working-class men, and a 50ish executive who reluctantly enters into an affair. Some of my favorite stories include "Hardly Knew Her," "One True Love," "Scratch a Woman," and "Ropa Vieja." The only thing that dimmed my enjoyment was how dark many of the stories were; several of the women didn't care about anything except their comfort, and it seemed like someone was murdered in nearly every story. Not that this is unusual, but for some reason I got tired of sociopathic characters killing someone merely because he or she got in their way. Still, Lippman's writing is excellent as always, and the book is hard to put down.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

A small compilation of short thriller and mystery stories. Like most collections of short stories, some were more interesting than the others. Laura Lippmans writing style and technique always keeps you grasping for the next page. If it's one thing she can do it's keep you guessing.
I liked how In just a few pages Laura could manipulate your mind to believe one thing, then she throws you a curve ball and changes your entire way of seeing her story.

The reason I gave this three stars: well, as I said, some stories were a lot more interesting than others. Some stories left me a little confused but what do you expect when you write a short story, there will always be unanswered questions. I wish I read this as my second book, I would have been able to read it in greater detail. I will definitely be reading this book again but as a secondary book.

[Darinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable collection of stories.

Part I: Girls Gone Wild
- The Crack Cocaine Diet ★★★★
- What He Needed ★★★★
- Dear Penthouse Forum (A First Draft) ★★★
- The Babysitter's Code ★★★
- Hardly Knew Her ★★★★
- Femme Fatale ★★★
- One True Love ★★★

Part II: Other Cities, Not My Own
- Pony Girl ★★★
- ARM and the Woman ★★★★
- Honor Bar ★★★
- A Good Fuck Spoiled ★★★

Part III: My Baby Walks the Streets of Baltimore
- Easy as A-B-C ★★★
- Black-Eyed Susan ★★★
- Ropa Vieja ★★★
- The Shoeshine Man's Regrets ★★★
- The Accidental Detective ★★★★

Part IV: Scratch a Woman
- Scratch a Woman ★★★★

[Ian Allan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a big Laura Lippman fan. I have read three of her books, and I've graded them each at 4 stars -- Wilde Lake, Sunburn and After I'm Gone.

But this isn't in the same ballpark. It's a collection of short stories, and they don't bring the same magic. In this kind of format, most of the plots and characters aren't developed much. It's like going to see a great musician down at the local bar, and they're sitting in with the local bar band and not playing their best songs.

Many times during this one I considered pulling the plug. Because it was Lippman I stuck it out to the bitter end.

[Kendra Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book for the days when you’re feeling dark. I liked the first two parts better than the last one. They were more enjoyable because they were nearly always about women behaving badly and getting one over on the world at large. The last part focused much more on the men although Scratch a Woman was thoroughly good and featured the return of a character from earlier in the book that I had been keen to know more about.

You are going to like this book if you enjoy stories about misbehaving women and enjoy the idea of reading about them getting revenge.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, this was a good short story book. The themes and outcomes varied. Most of the short stories were decent, but a few left me hanging. Those that left me hanging had endings where I thought, "That's it?" in terms of the story seeming unresolved. My least favorite was "Femme Fatale." Quite a few of the mostly decent ones were predictable. I read this on audiobook. It was annoying to have a music jingle play at the end and beginning of each story. Also at the end and beginning a thank you for reading and mention of more audiobooks by the company.

[Dorina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hate short stories. I always feel let down because I want to read more. Sometimes, I feel that it did not contain enough good writing.

That said, I loved this book of short stories! Yes, I am in shock saying that. Laura Lippman writes so well that I got into each story, each character and had "oh wow" smiles at the last paragraph. I enjoyed this book and cannot wait to read more by this author. Now deciding who to share this one with.