I consider myself a bit of a Laura Lippman fan, but this was one of the weaker entries in the Tess Monaghan series so far. It lacked many of the familiar elements that made the previous three books enjoyable - the loving descriptions of Baltimore scenery and Tess's relationships with her family and friends in particular, but also the slow and steady build of a typical investigation. Tess spends almost the entire book in Texas, away from everything that usually centers the books, which resulted in quite a bit of the kind of stiff expository writing that usually shows up in the first few chapters of the first book of a new series. To top that off, the investigation feels sloppy and directionless for most of the story. I did not expect that from a book this deep into a series, and it definitely put a damper on my reading experience.After finishing the book, my over all opinion of the actual mystery (essentially a cold case which has inspired a string of new crimes) is positive, however it only really came together in the final quarter of the book. Because the last 25% of the book was so enjoyable, it only makes the previous 75% stand out for being so boring and loosely connected. I almost wonder if Lippman should have written this as a novella, and left out the middle 200 or so pages of fluff.If you're a fan of the Tess Monaghan series I think this entry is still worth reading, but feel free to skim through the middle portion. Here's hoping book #5 is a bit more exciting... Edited to add:Oh my gosh, I can't believe I forgot to mention my biggest complaint about this book! The proofreading in the Kindle version I read was a mess. There were quite a few typos and the like, but the most egregious offence was when the narrator accidentally called a character by the wrong name. I had to read the sentence over a few times before I realized that, no, Rick the lawyer did miraculously not appear in a scene between Tess and Steve the cop. I blame the editor for this more than the author, but it still colored my over all impression of the book a bit.
I thought this was a pretty decent little mystery. I liked the way that parts of this book function almost as travel writing, and I liked the geography Lippman chooses to write about here; I feel warmly toward Austin and San Antonio, and liked what she wrote about.I was kind of into, and kind of bored by, some of the relationship stuff-- this might be because the best of the Crow-Tess stuff was set up elsewhere, but I kind of doubt it? The other stuff, her early interactions with her women friends, had promise but didn't come back in this particular book.Both of those elements, though, are side dishes to a main course I didn't really think so much of-- the elements I wanted to read more about: the struggling musicians, the underground scene, seemed to lose out to the old unsolved mystery element, which maybe just wasn't as present as it needed to be to make me care about it. So in the end, I didn't get enough of what I wanted; the ultimate mastermind felt kind of beside the point, acting for reasons the book hadn't quite prepared me for, and bringing together a climax that didn't flatter the most compelling parts of the characters we'd spent time with.This stuff is hard, duh. But I felt like this was a bit of a misfire, a book that had some strong elements that it never fully exploited. I liked it enough to wish it was better.
What do You think about In Big Trouble (2000)?
I made a retroactive resolution to review every book I read this year, so this review is going to be a bit fuzzy as I read it two weeks ago.Tess gets a picture in the mail of Crow, and above it there is the headline "In Big Trouble". After letting this sit in her datebook for awhile, she calls Crow's parents. They're a wreck and want to hire her to track him down. She travels to see them to turn them down in person. When she's staying there, Crow's father takes her into Crow's studio to show her that the story of Tess and Crow is not yet finished. As she stands there looking at the many Tess themed pieces of art (including some nudes, awkward), she agrees with him and packs up for Texas.In Texas, our Tesser has a series of misadventures. She finds Crow, and some dead bodies. Pisses of a maybe fiance with her usual coping mechanism, makes some new friends, and pisses off some new cops. Oh, and then there's the angry almost sex scene on the car ride back to Crow's place before he'd actually forgiven her. That's worth the story right there.I've got to say though, I enjoyed the new characters, and was sad that they probably won't play a bigger part in upcoming novels. Perhaps Ms. Lippman can come up with a reason they all move to Baltimore? It doesn't have to be a good pretense, I just want them there.I was going to put in a whodunit spoiler... but it was too messed up to easily sum up at the end of a post, so really, just read it, you won't be sorry. There, sorry for the shitty review, but this is what happens when I let my brain forget things.
—Ginny Lurcock
Tess Monaghan has learned the hard way how to survive on the streets of Baltimore—first as a fearless investigative reporter and lately as a PI. But a new case is about to take her way out of her element. What begins with a tantalizing shard of a newspaper headline—"In Big Trouble"—above a photograph of an old boyfriend will end far away in another world, where people dress and talk differently . . . and rich people's games can have lethal consequences. Here where the sun is merciless—and curiosity can kill faster than a rattler's bite—Tess is going to have to confront her past and, hopefully, live to tell about it. For the answers she seeks about a man she thought she knew may be somehow linked to a murderer who two-steps to a very deadly drummer.This was an okay mystery but nothing struck me as a series I would want to follow. The detecting wasn't detailed enough to interest me as Tess pulled her facts together in her brain and the reader wasn't given the insight into how she clicked on the gel that glued them together.
—Swanbender2001
This one not up to the usual four, although it traveled from Baltimore through my city of Charlottesville (although coming by way of Shenandoah Park and Natural Bridge seemed like a map-chellenged journey) to San Antonio, Texas, where I once lived. In fact, first child was born there.So it was fun to travel around San Antonio, jog in the park, recall Joske's Dept Store, etc. I was listening on iPod and drifted off pretty often, so it was a little hard to follow the plot. Still she gets in some prime bon mots and is always a reliable read.
—Lynn Pribus
