Laura Lippman month

It was Laura Lippman month at out Mystery Book Club. I think I had heard of her series but had not gotten a chance to read any of her books. We all read any book(s) written by Laura Lippman.

From her website:

"Laura Lippman was a reporter for twenty years, including twelve years at The (Baltimore) Sun. She began writing novels while working full-time and published seven books about “accidental PI” Tess Monaghan before leaving daily journalism in 2001. 

Her work has been awarded the Edgar ®, the Anthony, the Agatha, the Shamus, the Nero Wolfe, Gumshoe and Barry awards.

She also has been nominated for other prizes in the crime fiction field, including the Hammett and the Macavity. She was the first-ever recipient of the Mayor’s Prize for Literary Excellence and the first genre writer recognized as Author of the Year by the Maryland Library Association. Ms. Lippman grew up in Baltimore and attended city schools through ninth grade.

After graduating from Wilde Lake High School in Columbia, Md., Ms. Lippman attended Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Her other newspaper jobs included the Waco Tribune-Herald and the San Antonio Light.

Ms. Lippman returned to Baltimore in 1989 and has lived there since. She is the daughter of the late Theo Lippman Jr., a Sun editorial writer who retired in 1995, and Madeline Mabry Lippman, a former Baltimore City school librarian. Her sister, Susan, is a local bookseller."

What did we read and what did we think?

There are 12 books in the Tess Monaghan series. Tess is a former Baltimore reporter turned accidental amateur P.I. I think about half of our group read the first novel in the series, Baltimore Blues.

About: 

"In a city where someone is murdered almost every day, attorney Michael Abramowitz's death should be just another statistic. But the slain lawyer's notoriety—and his taste for illicit midday trysts—make the case front-page news in every local paper except the Star, which crashed and burned before Abramowitz did.

A former Star reporter who knows every inch of this town—from historic Fort McHenry to the crumbling projects of Cherry Hill—now-unemployed journalist Tess Monaghan also knows the guy the cops like for the killing: cuckolded fiancé Darryl "Rock" Paxton. The time is ripe for a career move, so when rowing buddy Rock wants to hire her to do some unorthodox snooping to help clear his name, Tess agrees.

But there are lethal secrets hiding in the Charm City shadows. And Tess's own name could end up on that ever-expanding list of Baltimore dead."

All that read it, liked it and we felt we would read more of this series. Tess is a likeable character. Good development of characters and one unlikeable character in this book. :) I had just been in the Baltimore area and it was interesting to see references to some of the suburbs, streets etc. that I had seen on my trip.

The rest of the group read some of her stand alones. One person has read all of her books in the series. 
Books read for the MBC:
The Girl in the Green Rain Coat: Tess Monaghan #11
By a Spiders's Thread: Tess Monaghan #8

Stand Alones read:
The Most Dangerous Thing
I'd Know You Anywhere
After I'm Gone
And When She Was Good
Wilde Lake
By a Spiders Thread
Sunburn
What the Dead Know
Hardly Knew Her

Seemed like everyone enjoyed the books and would read other books by Laura Lippman. We recommend her!