When it appears a rowing buddy of hers murdered his fiancee's boss and lover, underemployed Tess Monaghan sets about trying to clear his name. But did Rock kill ace attorney Michael Abramowitz? If he didn't, who did and why? And can Tess find out before she winds up as dead as the lawyer?A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, the girl I was seeing at the time told me I would like Laura Lippman. Since she was always pushing books on me, I ignored her. Maybe she was right in that one particular instance.Baltimore Blues is a mystery that has many more layers than it first appears, like baklava. See, I could have said "onion" but that's what everyone says when they talk about layers. Anyway, it was Laura Lippman's first trip to the dance and she did a lot better than most first time novelists. As the title indicates, Baltimore plays a big part in the book, almost a character in and of itself, much like George Pelecanos' Washington DC, Dennis Lehane's Boston, and Lawrence Block's New York. Much like Detroit, Baltimore doesn't get by on looks. It has to work for a living, to paraphrase Elmore Leonard.Since this was the first book in the series, Lippman had some groundwork to lay and she did it in a fairly painless way. We know Tess is into rowing, has an on again/off again reporter boyfriend named Jonathan and used to be a reporter but we don't get clubbed over the head with any of it. I liked that Tess isn't hot, wasn't involved in a love triangle, and generally behaved like a real person instead of being a moron like most fictional detectives wind up being in order to advance the plot. Also, she works in a bookstore. A lady detective that works in a bookstore? Hard to top that, ladies.Like all great mysteries, it took me forever to figure out what really happened and it turned out I was still wrong. Part of it was misdirection but I have to say I think another part of it was that it was such a convoluted affair. That was my only gripe with the book. I thought the mystery was way too serpentine and not readily solveable. Also, I'm still pretty sure Ava was boning somebody besides Rock but that was never revealed.So, I liked Baltimore Blues quite a lot but not enough to take it into a bus station men's room and have rough intercourse with it. I'll be reading more of Laura Lippman's chronicles of Tess Monaghan. 3.5 out of 5 stars.
This is the first of the Tess Monaghan series. Lippman does an excellent job of establishing a great sense of Baltimore. This is important as Tess is a Baltimore native. We meet many of the characters, her friends and family, who continue to be featured in her books. Tess is a recently laid off newspaper reporter and is scrambling to earn a living with a few part-time jobs given to her by family members. She is also an athlete and her sport is rowing. As water is so important to the city of Baltimore, being on a tributary of Chesapeake Bay. She is also a runner and with the hours she spends daily on her exercise routines, it's a good thing she is not fully employed. Being a rower, however, fits into her getting her start as an investigator. A fellow rower hires her to trail his fiance. When there's a murder, her rowing friend is a suspect and Tess goes to work as an investigator for his lawyer. I have been reading this series for over 10 years. The first novel was published in 1997 and there are many aspects of the story that remind us how much things have changed in 18 years. For example, Tess often makes phone calls from pay phones that even in 1997 weren't easy to find.A satisfying mystery, and decent narration. The narrator makes a decent stab at Baltimore accents for various characters, and it adds to the color.
What do You think about Baltimore Blues (2006)?
Flipping through a number of mysteries, I was grabbed by Baltimore Blues from the first paragraph. Tight writing, realistic characters, a strong setting, well-crafted plot with good red herrings and actual clues: Lippman serves up a solid mystery. The main character, Tess, is particularly well-handled: she's neither an unlikeable mess nor a Mary Sue waiting to be discovered or to start believing in her own awesomeness. She's not cookies yet: life on hold after the end of her newspaper job, she's working out, scrounging, drifting, until a friend asks her to check up on his shady girlfriend. Set in Baltimore in the 90's, Baltimore Blues is a big canvas of loss: the city's loss of identity, the end of the newspaper era, chronic underemployment. Lippman takes this cast of scroungers, hangers-on, the checked-out, and weaves a strong narrative with everything from serial killers to grifters to scammers, janitors to millionaires.It's not great literature by any means, but it's a damn solid mystery, and I'll be reading more in the series.
—John Carter McKnight
I recently read one of Lippman's standalone novels and liked it, so I dug up the first in her Tess Monaghan series. Not bad, but a little bit clunky. This is a book that definitely would have been better in first-person POV than in third. It's a nice set-up for the series, though. We meet Tess (who is not necessarily the most warm-and-fuzzy, likeable heroine), a former reporter turned semi-employed mooch, just as she stumbles onto the opportunity to do some detective work for the first time. I'm always looking for a good series, so I plan to find the second book soon.
—Kendra
REREAD! started 5/20/10. yay!*oh, the first introduction to tess monaghan, we see how she gets together with tyner, how she stumbles on her first "case" and get to meet the lovely secondary characters - crow and whitney and kitty and feeny. this story revolves around the death of a not-so-loved lawyer and the arrest of tess's good rowing partner, rock, for the murder. as tess learns how to put her reporting skills to good use, how to get out from under the covers, we get way more of a story than we initially thought. there's high class cover-ups! death row inmates! crazed reporters and law firms whose offices have views of camden yards! breaking and entering and literary allusions that drive you crazy and make you laugh, plus a total twister of an ending. definitely a first book, but also surprisingly good for a first book - especially one that starts an awesome series. i am glad i have decided to read them in order, as i do think a. was right and they will be appreciated so much more. kind of like i had to do with Tess Gerritsen's books, once i realized they were a series. since i recommend the series so highly, i have to recommend this highly because i believe in starting at the beginning. however, i can't wait to start the next one, where tess suddenly finds herself employed by the blight. also, i am beginning to love baltimore even though it seems rather scary. damn authors with love for their cities!
—stephanie
