What do You think about By A Spider's Thread (2005)?
This is another in the Tess Monaghan series set in Baltimore. In this installation, Crow is at his parent's house as his mother ungoes cancer treatment. Tess had rejected Crow's suggestion of marriage, but Tess's Aunt Kitty marries. Tess's customer is a devout Jewish businessman whose wife and 3 children have disappeared. The wife has run away with her husband's step brother, and the step brother plans to kill the husband. I liked the way that Lippman interweaves Jewish customes into the story. And I especially like the 8-year-old son, Isaac. In this book, Tess questions her own JEwish heritage and her true feelings towards Crow. Also, we meet a women detective network, that really sounds interesting.#8 Tess Monaghan
—Debbie Maskus
I am relatively new to the Tess Monaghan series, having "discovered" Laura Lippman after reading "I'd Know You Anywhere" - and I've devoured most of the series in the past week (thank you, local library e-book collection!)What I like about Tess: she is fantastically, unapologetically flawed. What I can't stand about Tess: she doesn't seem to make a great deal of progress in the 10+ years her series has been written. It's difficult to root for someone who doesn't seem to be going anywhere.I haven't read the last three books yet, but this one is my least favorite. The only character I truly liked was Isaac. Tess was such an ambivalent character throughout the investigation - even all the lessons on Judaism seemed to bounce off her without leaving a mark. The Snoop-Sisters mailing list was another missed opportunity to delve deeper into Tess's character and show some character development and growth. I just felt like I was being "informed" instead of inside a story, on an adventure, like I had in previous Tess books. Same old thing with Crow...like, move on already. And the characters of Natalie and Zeke were terrible. I never knew who to hate more, and since I basically hated everyone, it was a testament to the strength of the earlier novels that I even finished the book.Just a miss all the way around. Also: glaring error. 313 is the area code for Detroit, not southwestern Indiana.
—Natalie
tess gets a client referred by her uncle donald, and meets the peculiar mark rubin, a modern orthodox jew who sells furs. this was not my favorite lippman. i think my favorite part occurred when whitney showed up, and that was late in the novel. i read these books for tess, not for whole chapters about the people she is looking for, etc. i understand why the story had to be told this way, or at least, why she chose it, but i didn't really care about natalie or lana or zeke at all. i did like isaac. but. not enough to make up for the lack of feeney and crow. and for heaven's sake, aunt kitty decides to get married and we have like, THREE scenes of it. truly a lost opportunity that i am mourning. at least miata and esskay were there. i still want to go to baltimore, and the eastern shore, but this wasn't her best. of course, i hold lippman to some high standards - she's in a separate category from james patterson. i should make a new shelf for the real quality thrillers . . .
—stephanie
