Wilde Lake

Locations
Call Number: Mystery / Lippman, Laura, Adult Book / Fiction / Thriller / General / Lippman, Laura
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Pittsfield Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Mystery / Lippman, Laura	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Thriller / General / Lippman, Laura	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Luisa "Lu" Brant is the newly elected-- and first female-- state's attorney of Howard County, Maryland, a job in which her widower father famously served. Fiercely intelligent and ambitious, she sees an opportunity to make her name by trying a mentally disturbed drifter accused of beating a woman to death in her home. It's not the kind of case that makes headlines, but peaceful Howard County doesn't see many homicides. As Lu prepares for the trial, the case dredges up painful memories, reminding her small, but tight-knit, family of the night when her brother, AJ, saved his best friend at the cost of another man's life. Only eighteen, AJ was cleared by a grand jury. Now, Lu wonders if the events of 1980 happened as she remembers them. What details might have been withheld from her when she was a child?

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Good writing submitted by jcottey on June 20, 2016, 9:25pm Laura Lippman is a great author who seems to enjoy writing sad stories lately. However, I didn't come away feeling depressed after finishing the book, although not uplifted either. The book flashes back and forth from Lu's childhood to the current time. The reader finds the surprising connections between the two time periods as the story progresses, ending with the resolution to the unsolved questions from the past.

Secrets submitted by Judeyblu on June 20, 2016, 10:41pm A state's attorney with a family and personal secret that threatens the successful life she's built.
Lu weaves the current and past stories together and tells us the two stories in a way that keeps you reading breathlessly to the end.

Disappointing submitted by debbifs on August 29, 2016, 8:33am I usually enjoy Lippman's books but, alas, I found this one to be very disappointing. I found the main character to be extremely unpleasant. I don't think Lippman did that intentionally as that trait didn't seem to move the story forward. There are interesting pieces to be book -- I'm a sucker for things that play on the idea of family (and personal) history as myth. It's just been done so much better before. And, for the love of all that is sacred, Lippman should never write another sex scene again unless she can do it a lot better than in this book!

For a nonfiction approach to the idea of family history as myth, checkout Paper love: searching for the girl my grandfather left behind.