Another Thing to Fall

Tess Monaghan #10

by Laura Lippman

The California dream weavers have invaded Charm City with their cameras, their stars, and their controversy. . . .

When private investigator Tess Monaghan literally runs into the crew of the fledgling TV series "Mann of Steel" while sculling, she expects sharp words and evil looks, "not" an assignment. But the company has been plagued by a series of disturbing incidents since its arrival on location in Baltimore: bad press, union threats, and small, costly on-set "accidents" that have wreaked havoc with its shooting schedule. As a result, "Mann's" creator, Flip Tumulty, the son of a Hollywood legend, is worried for the safety of his young female lead, Selene Waites, and asks Tess to serve as her bodyguard/babysitter. Tumulty's concern may be well founded. Not long ago a Baltimore man was discovered dead in his own home, surrounded by photos of the beautiful, difficult superstar-in-the-making.

In the past, Tess has had enough trouble guarding her "own" body. Keeping a spoiled movie princess under wraps may be more than she can handle--even with the help of Tess's icily unflappable friend Whitney--since Selene is not as naive as everyone seems to think, and far more devious than she initially appears to be. This is not Tess's world. And these are not her kind of people, with their vanities, their self-serving agendas and invented personas, and their remarkably skewed visions of reality--from the series' aging, shallow, former pretty-boy leading man to its resentful, always-on-the-make cowriter to the officious young assistant who may be too hungry for her own good.

But the fish-out-of-water P.I. is abruptly pulled back in by an occurrence she's all too familiar with--murder. Suddenly the wall of secrets around "Mann of Steel" is in danger of toppling, leaving shattered dreams, careers, and lives scattered among the ruins--a catastrophe that threatens the people Tess cares about . . . and the city she loves.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Audiobook, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Detective, Suspense

325 pages, Hardcover

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

[Obsidian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not too much to say here except that this read like a filler book in the adventures of Tess and her private investigation business. It's pretty apparent she got some of this plot idea from being married to David Simon. It just didn't work and honestly all of the characters we are used to (Whitney, Crow, and even now I guess Lloyd) felt very muted.

"Another Thing to Fall" has Tess almost being ran over by a television crew boat. She's somehow offered a job out of nowhere to keep an actress on their set safe. The young actress's photos were found in a man's home who killed himself. But now there are crew accidents and there seems to be someone out there trying to stop production on the show called "Mann of Steel."

Tess is still level headed and has a high BS meter, however, she kind of stumbles onto what is going on and who is behind it on the set. Her and Crow seem quite comfortable though she's a bit over him letting his "protege" Lloyd stay with them. Frankly I don't get why Tess allows it and I wish someone would tell Crow it's creepy he's adopted a young black man who he thinks he needs to teach about the world. The white savior nonsense in the past two books is a huge turn off.

There's not much else to say. The book focuses mostly on the writer/director/ on the show who are childhood friends. We also get POVs from one of the actors along with a man who is very interested in the set. It takes a while to figure out how he fits in. Instead of Lippman juggling all of this together, it read like everyone was in a different book. Tess is supposed to be the draw and I wish we had stayed with her mostly. Whitney is only on hand to babysit and I miss kick ass Whitney and Tess doing their thing. We also only hear about Tess's aunt and we get one appearance of the man she married. Same thing about Tess's parents who used to be prominent in the series, we just hear about them.

The writing felt stilted since Lippman is trying to make television writing sound interesting. Going on about sets, the script Bible, etc. made my eyes glaze. I just didn't care. Things got interesting once the first character was murdered, but again, she (the woman who was murdered) didn't feel very developed and also seemed just there to move the plot along. The flow was pretty off. I had to sit and make myself get through all of the parts not showcasing Tess.

The setting of Baltimore feels a bit off in this one. Maybe because we are reading about it via stranger's eyes. Tess has nothing but love for Baltimore and we usually get some history lessons in her quick soliloquies to herself. Instead we have a lot of people complaining about how big the residents are, how their teeth look weird (a la not bright white) and the crime.

The ending was a mess. I guess we are supposed to cheer new starts for one of the secondary characters even though we know that justice really wasn't done in the case of one of the murders.

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

With three critically-acclaimed standalones ( To the Power of Three, Every Secret Thing and What the Dead Know) now behind her, Laura Lippman returns to the Tess Monaghan series with Another Thing to Fall. Those of us who have been following Tess's adventures for years should be grateful, and I am, but I wish I could have liked this book more.
In it, Tess is brought into the world of television production (with which Lippman is familiar because of her husband's involvement with The Wire). It's a world where no one is quite what s/he seems, and one where most people are so focused on their own concerns as to be fairly clueless outside them. Problems are dogging the set of a Baltimore-location TV series in production, and Tess is hired as a bodyguard for its lead ingenue. This is one of those books with multiple points of view, including perpetrator(s), victims, and not-so-innocent bystanders as well as that of the detective. These are useful in explaining motivations, but can be a little confusing.
At the end of the book, it seemed to me, Tess hadn't done all that much detecting, rather she learned much of the truth by having it flung at her,and probably that's why I found the book a little disappointing.
On the other hand, although we didn't get to see much of Crow, both his teenage protege Lloyd and Tess's awesome friend Whitney Talbot featured largely in the plot, and that was enjoyable. Even a so-so Laura Lippman book is much better than average, and I also liked her insights into the ambivalence of a troubled city being "invaded" by television and movie crews with their promises of money and fame.

[Tiffany PSquared · Rating 2 out of 5]

Avid readers are often pretty good at judging when a book isn't working for them. I knew early on that this book wasn't clicking any of my buttons, but I soldiered on.
But even as I marshaled every effort, I couldn't bring myself to care about this story or any of its characters. None of it interested me. Even the beautiful title was a bit lofty for this book's goals.

I was supposed to be drawn in by an on-set mystery at a TV show called Mann of Steel being filmed in Baltimore. But nothing about the "mysterious" pranks or over-hyped danger was all that interesting.
And the murder that rocks the set - not a spoiler because it's mentioned on the jacket - is treated in an entirely dispassionate way. Tip: Don't die in a Tess Monaghan story; you may hardly be noticed.

Another gripe - the cover. A picture of a drowning woman. It's got bubbles and drama and emotion - it alone is enough to draw readers to the book. But guess what, *spoiler alert!* There's no drowning woman in this story! No body of water plays a part in it at all! Not even a fully filled bathtub! Quite a bait and switch, Laura Lippman. Tricky, tricky.

And what about the bit players that Lippman just casually left out in the cold, lingering on their last-mentioned pages waiting for someone to rescue them from obscurity? Poor Mrs. Blossom in her flowery camouflage is probably still surveilling Tess from the bushes trying to get an A in her class.

So, I kid, but I'm not kidding, I didn't care for this book. Its subject didn't ever become interesting to me and the characters did not capture my attention; not even the protagonist, who I found at times to be a little humdrum. Well, you can't win them all. And, for me, this book was just, wait for it... Another Thing to Fall.

[jo · Rating 2 out of 5]

another book with a mentally ill (bipolar?) woman. they are everywhere. i'm gonna keep track.

also, i think laura lippman is having a hard time. she pretty much says so here .

**SPOILERS**

i have always found her fascination with little girls and the horrors little girls endure/perpetrated a really dark side of her writerly personality. in this book there's a whole entirely-irrelevant-to-the-main-story motif having to do with men who love children too much. it gets to the point that it creates some seriously misguided, in my opinion, red herrings that detract from the efficacy of the novel in general.

and what's with the drowning kid on the cover? nothing AT ALL to do with the story. hmmm.

mostly, though, i found the story disjointed, and the presence of tess rather unintegrated. strange, too, to see a PI-based mystery in which the PI is so absent from a lot of the scenes and, also, so much in the dark about what's going on. tess seems remarkably passive, including when she relinquishes control of selene entirely to whitney. again, hmmm.

[Juniper · Rating 2 out of 5]

hmmm.... this one was jut okay for me. more plot-driven, with less character development.

[Vanessa Delamare · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I read a thriller, I do not like having to wait half the book for something to happen ... and this was the case. The majority of the book is a credit to the film limitless knowledge of the author who lost us in her endless quotes. There is little action and no suspense, because the majority of the book consists of discussion about films or TV shows. The private detective does not investigate the murder, leaving it to the police, even if she eventually finds the culprit in a (very) few pages. When I read a thriller, I like to read a thriller ... not an encyclopedia about movies, even if it's very interesting.

Lovers of old movies or TV series will surely love this book that allows you to associate thriller and film and I must recognize the knowledge and / or research work of the author. However, I did not get into it, because I had trouble keeping the thread of the plot, drowned as I was in quotes.

[Susan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dismally boring and long-winded throughout. Nothing really happened at all. Very disappointing as I have read a few other books by Laura Lippman and enjoyed them. I trudged my way through it but glad to be finished.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Movie madness comes to Baltimore as the fictional Mann of Steel comes to town. Tess gets dragged in as security and Lloyd gets a job on set. Chaos and crime ensue.

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished this book on Tuesday, and this morning (two days later) I woke up thinking, Wait a second- did that [plot point] make any sense? Unfortunately, I already returned this book to the library, so I can't read back and figure it out. I'm going to give Laura Lippman the benefit of the doubt here, because I've found that she's earned it in the past.

This book is solid. I don't usually read series, but I read the Tess Monaghan books when I need a mystery and the library I'm visiting doesn't have any Lippman stand-alones. I like the Monaghan character. I like the way Lippman goes beyond formula, especially in characterization. I like that justice isn't always done perfectly.

And in this book, it really isn't. To a point that made me feel uneasy. It was a little bit on the line, in terms of character credibility. I am still not convinced that Monaghan would've made the decision to let a miscarriage of justice slide and for the particular reason given? (Sorry to be cryptic, but I can't bear to spoil the end.)

Another Thing to Fall really showcases some of Lippman's strengths as a writer. Characters are nuanced and realistically different from one another. They aren't types; they are actual people. She knows her details but doesn't come off as smushing them in to be like, "Look! I did research!" The writing and plotting are natural and easy and the end felt inevitable but not predictable.

As for the question of whether the book held up or not, well, I felt satisfied by it. And it's probably a good sign that I'm waking up in the morning thinking about it.

[L · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's the thing. Tess Monaghan is a nearly-normal human being, which is rare for women characters in the mystery genre. She is unswervingly loyal to her city, Baltimore. She is somewhere between being a kid & getting close enough to see middle-age. She is a realistic weight. She occasionally fumbles something, but she never does "the stupid girl PI thing." Ok, so she gets up before dawn to row; every character has a flaw, right? So, I can't resist a Lippman book.

On top of that, this one has a fine mystery and takes pleasure in playing with its Hollywood characters. At the same time, it does illustrate an observation Lippman makes her after notes. That is, folks in television work incredibly hard, long hours. I think they don't usually have as much murder and mayhem on the set as they do here, but then, this is a mystery novel, after all.

Enjoy!

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

The tenth entry in Laura Lippman’s Tess Monaghan series finds the Baltimore-native reporter-turned-private-eye rowing her way into the production of the television mini-series Mann of Steel. Tess is hired to provide security for young starlet Selene Waites (think Paris Hilton only with acting ability) due to a series of disturbing incidents plaguing the fledgling series.

At first Tess chalks Selene up to a ditzy Hollywood type, but events quickly show that Selene is cleverer than she lets on. When the series of incidents escalates into the death of one of the writing assistants, Tess’ natural curiosity is piqued and she begins to investigate what’s really happening with the Mann of Steel production.

As the story unfolds, a number of likely suspects enter into the picture with Lippman laying out a foundation and motive for each person to be part of the plot to disrupt the production of the show. As always with Lippman’s books, the pages turn easily and the narrative shifts between several characters while staying firmly grounded with Tess. The first half of the book lays out all the characters and their potential motivations and the second half puts the pieces into place, leading up to a satisfying denouncement to multiple mysteries taking place within the novel.

Yet despite having several threads running, the novel never loses focus or the reader.

Along with Elizabeth George, Lippman writes the most satisfying, character-driven mystery novels on the market today. As with George’s Lynley and Havers series, part of the pleasure in Lippman’s Monaghan novels is the chance to “catch up” with Tess. Of course, the mystery is compelling as well or else the novels wouldn’t be worth the time or effort. But the balance of character and mystery is well navigated here. And Lippman does the near impossible task of allowing new readers into the Tess universe while satisfying long-time readers of Tess’ adventures.

[Jan C · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like the Tess Monaghan books. I like most of the standalones, too.

Here, she gets involved backstage with a tv show being filmed in Baltimore. All sorts of havoc is going on. And, of course, someone gets killed.

What was funny in this book was how she treated writers of tv shows. Wonder if she'd been looking in the mirror. She was one of the writers on The Wire, her husband's television show which was shot in Baltimore.

Loved when she said "It's worse than surveillance" when she was asked if she would like to become a writer for the show.

Mrs. Blossom was a breath of fresh air. She was taking a course Tess was teaching on private investigation because she had nothing to watch on tv on Mondays.

[Heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another solid mystery featuring one of my new favorite private investigators Tess Monaghan.... maybe it's because she's an ex-reporter or because she isn't ashamed to eat a good meal, but the more I read, the more I like this character!

I do have to say that Lippman's earlier books in the series are a little more suspenseful than this particular one was, however, it was a still a good read with an ending that took a little liberty in doling out justice.

[John Biddle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another good Tess Monaghan novel by Laura Lippman. Her interactions with a number of regular characters from her other books were minimal, but I enjoyed the inside look at TV production. I like the dialog, both between characters and the internal dialog as Tess works through what she thinks f things and why. The book moved along just fine and I never lost interest, but it was missing something and so didn't quite rise to a 4. I'd easily go 3.5 but can't. I will definitely continue reading these.

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is crime fiction/mystery.

While I've never thought of myself as particularly liking this genre, I'm starting to see that these are good palate-cleanser books--perfect for when you've finished a deep, academic, or confusing book, or maybe one that leaves you with frayed ends (think Holocaust fiction or similar).

This book was a quick read, kept me entertained, and made me want to learn more about Tess Monaghan.

[Fran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lippman is new author for me to read, despite being familiar with her name and her work for decades. She has a lot of similarities to Sue Grafton and Janet Evanovich. Tess, the main character, shares similarities with both those of characters in mysteries by Grafton and Evanovich. It was enjoyable and I hadn't figured out the ending.

[Terri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this author, love this character, and find the stories quite engaging. Learning about Baltimore from a distance is a neat perk of these books, since I have never been to Baltimore except to pass by on my way to other places.

[Mark O'mara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another solid Laura Lippman book. Excellent summer holiday read. As with the other Lippman books I've read, I enjoyed the Baltimore setting and the characters she developed. Narrative always keeps me turning the pages. As I finished this book I noted that Laura Lippmans is married to David Simon writer and producer of The Wire - I though that was pretty cool!

[Janet Hutchinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this to be a little convoluted, and the characters that I really like played less of a role than usual.

[stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

okay, i don't know if it's just because the last two books i read were so disappointing, but i think i've found a new favorite writer in this genre. true, she's not as twisted as karin slaughter, she's not as medical tess gerritsen, and she doesn't have weird but somehow believable things with the paranormal going on like iris johansen. but she wins big time for having a completely lovable, strong, believable female protagonist.

i love the baltimore setting, and i love that i know lippman isn't just paying service to the neighborhood (the way the tv show being shot in the book is), but she actually knows her city and she seems to love it.

honestly, tess monaghan is right up there with eve duncan, jane rizzoli and maura isles, and say . . . the protagonist from tami hoag's Dark Horse. she's flawed but she's smart, her best friend whitney is an absolute hoot, she has a past i can't wait to delve into (this is the most recent in the series - i plan to go back to the beginning), she frank, direct, the writing is crisp and clear, and i really felt a love of baltimore in the pages, which was so nice.

it's a good story with just enough twists to keep you wondering, and just enough crazy characters to be in this genre, but really, it's a good story. i would have liked a little more character development, but i get the feeling these are characters most people know (crow, whitney, lloyd, tess herself) - and i kind of LOVED the fact there wasn't some recap of tess' personal history early on. like, we know she shot someone and she almost died. awesome, that makes me want to read more of the books, unlike the parts of say, James Patterson's women's mystery club series that remind me of the way my old babysitters club books used to be written: this is this character and she's like this; this is character b and she's like this because of this; blah blah, skip the first three chapters and you haven't missed anything.

out of all my favorite female protagonists, i think tess might be the most believable. (lena adams and sara linton still own my heart, but tess is encroaching.) i might change my mind when i actually find out the history i want to know, but right now? laura lippman just gave me a wonderful april present.

[Kathleen Hagen]

Another Thing to Fall, by Laura Lippman, b-plus narrated by Linda Emond, produced by Harper Audio, downloaded from audible.com. A.

This is the latest in the Baltimore PI, Tess Monaghan series.
Publisher’s note:
The California dream weavers have invaded Charm City with their cameras, their stars, and their controversy.When private investigator Tess Monaghan literally
runs into the crew of the fledgling TV series Mann of Steel while sculling, she expects sharp words and evil looks, not an assignment. But the company
has been plagued by a series of disturbing incidents since its arrival on location in Baltimore: bad press, union threats, and small, costly on-set "accidents"
that have wreaked havoc with its shooting schedule. As a result, Mann's creator, Flip Tumulty, the son of a Hollywood legend, is worried for the safety
of his young female lead, Selene Waites, and asks Tess to serve as her bodyguard/babysitter. Tumulty's concern may be well founded. Not long ago, a Baltimore
man was discovered dead in his own home, surrounded by photos of the beautiful, difficult superstar-in-the-making.In the past, Tess has had enough trouble
guarding her own body. Keeping a spoiled movie princess under wraps may be more than she can handle - even with the help of Tess' icily unflappable friend
Whitney - since Selene is not as naive as everyone seems to think and is far more devious than she initially appears to be.This is not Tess' world. And
these are not her kind of people, with their vanities, their self-serving agendas and invented personas, and their remarkably skewed visions of reality
- from the series' aging, shallow, former pretty-boy leading man to its resentful, always-on-the-make co-writer, to the officious young assistant who may
be too hungry for her own good.But the fish-out-of-water P.I. is abruptly pulled back in by an occurrence she's all too familiar with: murder. Suddenly,
the wall of secrets around Mann of Steel is in danger of toppling, leaving shattered dreams, careers, and lives scattered among the ruins - a catastrophe
that threatens the people Tess cares about...and the city she loves.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

All Tess Monaghan wanted was a morning of sculling. But while rowing at sunrise, she literally runs into the cast and crew of Mann of Steel, a TV show being filmed right there in her beloved Baltimore. After being pulled out of the water, she expects to be scolded for ruining their shot. Instead, she is offered the job of watching their young star, difficult to manage star, Selene. Seems there have been some incidents on the set that lead the producer to believe that someone is trying to get to Selene and stop the production. While Tess is not sure that being babysitter to a spoiled starlet is really her thing, they offer her almost twice what she usually charges. It's not long before Tess is drawn into both the stars personal drama-and a murder. With the help of her best friend Whitney Talbot, and rescued street kid Lloyd Jupiter, Tess finds out what is really going on behind the scenes of Mann of Steel.


In Another Thing to Fall, Laura Lippman has once again provided the perfect popcorn book. The characters are engaging, the action of well-paced, and the mystery provides a small challenge to the brain without too many clues to have to keep straight. She does trot out all of the usual Hollywood cliches about spoiled actresses and almost has-been actors trying to make a come-back and egotistical producers who expect everyone to kowtow to them. But hey, for all I know Hollywood really is like that-it's not like I'm hanging out with the A-Listers! I guess the reason that those cliches gets trotted out is because the rest of us peasants find something amusing/entertaining/comforting in thinking about the stratospherically famous as being not-so-perfect. All in all, this book was a great summer read-very satisfying brain candy!

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This latest mystery, featuring Baltimore PI Tess Monaghan, finds Tess having to deal with a lot of Hollywood types, who are in town to film the first few episodes of a new TV series, Mann of Steel (sort of a Life on Mars premise featuring a steelworker instead of a cop and traveling much further back in time).

Tess literally rows into a shot while sculling on the Patapsco and before she knows it, she's been hired to babysit one Lindsey Lohan-type actress, Selene Waites. It seems that strange accidents have been happening on set and the series creator, the son of a famous filmmaker is concerned for the young starlet's safety. This set-up gives Lippman a chance to gently (and sometimes not so gently) skewer the world of show business and given her connection to TV shows filmed in Baltimore, the fobiles and vanities of cast/crew seem pretty realistic (though she hastens to add that the cast/crew of The Wire were/are nothing like this fictional group).

I enjoyed this novel but I found myself wanting to stay in Tess's point of view more than the story did (which moved in and out of various character's perspectives). The result, for me, was that the story felt rushed. Still, a less than great Lippman is still pretty d***m good.

[Tom Arthur · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read all the previous Tess Monaghan books, it was good to get back and visit with Tess and all of Lippman's associated characters. That's what I enjoyed most about the book . . . revisiting the cast of characters. Tess becomes involved with a TV production being shot in Baltimore after wandering into the midst of scene shooting while sculling in the inner harbor. This is her entree into being hired by the production as a babysitter/body guard for the show's starlet. Her job expands as the production is beset with a variety of mishaps which she begins to investigate including the murder of a staff member.

The book provides a primer on the ins and outs of creating and producing a television mini-series. The whodunnit aspects of the book and the associated sleuthing by Tess are not clear and concise as in previous books. As a result, the plot gets a bit muddled on the homestretch with too many plot twists and the addition of more characters.

Its hard to believe that this book is the tenth I've read in the series. Although not one of my favorites, I always enjoy Lippman's writing style and her cast of core characters.

[Lisa Anne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Laura Lippman was another author who came highly recommended by friends . . . who evidently I need to stop listening to :-( I gave this book more than my usual 50-page-rule: I listened to the first two audio-disks and was beyond bored. She is clearly an intelligent author, had done her research, the characters were well developed (if not overly so), but there was just not a single thing that interested me about the story . . . I couldn't even get to the point of the murder . . . I just completely didn't care! Not sure that I'll read one of her books again. While I typically like authors that are heavy into character development (like Grisham), I felt like Lippman had extraneous information included, to the point that if I was actually reading the book, I would have been skipping paragraphs. This book fell far short of my expectations!

[Maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up based on my reading of Lippman's standalone work, and found it entertaining but not, to my mind, as good. My main problems were that I felt the deaths were dealt with a little too lightly, and that the text was too heavily larded with insider references, both geographic (the book takes place in Baltimore) and industry-related (the action relates to the production of a TV series). There's a vague whiff of trying too hard, in my opinion.
Still, I'd go back and read earlier books in the series the next time I'm looking for some light reading in this vein.

[becky · Rating 2 out of 5]

mystery is not my genre but this was a very easy read- not that that makes this a good book (as you can see by the 2 stars it received). i guess this book disappointed me because it wasn't something you could solve even if you were extra clever. you had to wait for the information to be revealed which doesn't really make it a mystery, right? its more of a story that they tell you how it was solved.

so what's the fun in that? i guess you get to go for a ride with a believable PI into a world that you wouldn't normally experience.

[Johnvano · Rating 2 out of 5]

I heard Lippman was a great writer who really got the city of Baltimore, so I picked up this mystery and found her very similar to Janet Evanovich. I was hoping for more. Her protagonist, series headliner Tess Monaghan, gets involved with a Baltimore TV production and solves the mysteries it has attracted. Tess maintains a tongue-in-cheek narrative, but this is nowhere as good as Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitar narrative. The resolution seemed superfluous, the author more intent on characterizations and humor.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ms. Lippman, who is married to David Simon, a producer for the HBO series “The Wire,” seems to have wanted to share what she has learned about what goes on behind the scenes in filmmaking. Thus she devotes most of her attention to this information, and the mystery aspect doesn’t hold up very well. Nevertheless, her books in this series area bit like friends and family: sometimes they’re fun, sometimes not so much, but they’re still your friends and family.

Evaluation: Not the best of the series.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I made the mistake of reading 2 Laura Lippman books back to back and out of order. It was a bit much. But, in saying that, these books are enjoyable for what they are, mystery fiction. This one spoke from the "bad guy's" perspective quickly, which is a bit different from the norm for Laura. I did not enjoy that as much as her norm. She can go off on tangents as well, which happened in this book a bit frequently. But overall enjoyable.