Baltimore Blues (Tess Monaghan, #1) in Around the World in 80 Books

Feb 19, 2018 Laura rated it liked it

Shelves: lib-has-audio, on-ipad2, on-laptop, overdrive, 2018, library-request, on-dj, library, first-of-a-series

3.75 stars. I loved this for more than halfway, and then it started getting a little violent. I love Tess though and the other recurring characters, and the humor. Also the Baltimore flavor was a nice add. The audio narrator does a really bad Baltimore accent. But other than that, the narration was also good. Will continue with the series after a little break. Nice to have found a new series to enjoy!

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Mar 17, 2019 Nadine in NY Jones rated it did not like it

Shelves: detective-mystery, mystery, audio

This is really dappointing. I was expecting dark and quirky but I got a flaccid mystery that fits nicely into the sub genre of "charmingly inept lady PI solves the mystery despite herself" that was popularized by Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum.

This is my second book from Lippman, and I came to it with fairly high expectations based on the other book I read (Sunburn, which was a quirky, well-written, rather dark mystery with satisfying "who's conning whom?" plot twists). But this book is all so This is really dappointing. I was expecting dark and quirky but I got a flaccid mystery that fits nicely into the sub genre of "charmingly inept lady PI solves the mystery despite herself" that was popularized by Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum.

This is my second book from Lippman, and I came to it with fairly high expectations based on the other book I read (Sunburn, which was a quirky, well-written, rather dark mystery with satisfying "who's conning whom?" plot twists). But this book is all sorts of disappoint. Our protagonist, Tess, is your stereotypical spunky, penniless lady detective. She claims to be unemployed, which sucks, but she has two (admittedly low-paying) jobs. In order to be "unemployed" surely one should have NO jobs? She lets us know she's quirky and sassy by snarkily deriding all the people around her, especially the other women. Our Tess is not like other girls, ya know. The woman she's been assigned to tail is far too gorgeous and well-dressed to look like a lawyer (because everyone knows gorgeous women can't be smart enough and hard working enough to be lawyers). Naturally, Ava is a self-centered bitch, because gorgeous women always are. Her profile looks like many others (because gorgeous women are all narcissists who have plastic surgery at the same surgeon). Her high heels look just like what prostitutes wear (because it's funny to insult gorgeous women AND prostitutes all in one sentence). It's fun to ridicule people in support groups. It's fun to laugh at women struggling with bulimia, and it's satisfying to look down on women in rape survivor support groups because they've shaped their identities as victims (I guess they should just suck it up and get over it).

Along with being, basically, an asshole, Tess is kind of stupid. She makes poor assumptions and misses obvious evidence. I can't say I had the mystery figured out (but I CAN say I absolutely did not care when it was finally revealed), but I did figure out all of the little twists. (view spoiler)
I would've been fine with ignoring the various dumb moves but the offensive sneering was too much for me. ...more

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Feb 13, 2025 alana rated it liked it

Shelves: audiobook, crime

More of a 2.5 for me. Perhaps I'd have enjoyed it more if I'd spent more time in Baltimore. It feels very 90s, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I just didn't get much into it all. ...more

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