Laura Lippman Books In Order

Tess Monaghan Books In Publication Order

  1. Baltimore Blues (1997)
  2. Charm City (1997)
  3. Butchers Hill (1998)
  4. In Big Trouble (1999)
  5. The Sugar House (2000)
  6. In a Strange City (2001)
  7. The Last Place (2002)
  8. By a Spider’s Thread (2004)
  9. No Good Deeds (2006)
  10. Another Thing to Fall (2008)
  11. The Girl in the Green Raincoat (2008)
  12. The Book Thing (2012)
  13. Hush Hush (2015)

Tess Monaghan Collections In Publication Order

  1. The Tess Chronicles (2018)

Standalone Novels In Publication Order

  1. Every Secret Thing (2003)
  2. To the Power of Three (2005)
  3. What the Dead Know / Little Sister (2007)
  4. Life Sentences (2009)
  5. I’d Know You Anywhere / Don’t Look Back (2010)
  6. The Most Dangerous Thing / The Innocents (2011)
  7. And When She Was Good (2012)
  8. After I’m Gone (2014)
  9. Five Fires (2014)
  10. Wilde Lake (2016)
  11. Sunburn (2018)
  12. Lady in the Lake (2019)
  13. Dream Girl (2021)

Short Stories/Novellas In Publication Order

  1. One True Love (2008)
  2. Black-Eyed Susan (2008)
  3. Scratch a Woman (2008)
  4. A Good Fu*ck Spoiled (2008)
  5. The Crack Cocaine Diet (2008)
  6. Easy as A-B-C (2008)
  7. What He Needed (2008)
  8. Dear Penthouse Forum (2008)
  9. Honor Bar (2008)
  10. The Shoeshine Man’s Regrets (2008)
  11. Femme Fatale (2008)
  12. Pony Girl (2008)
  13. ARM and the Woman (2008)
  14. Ropa Vieja (2008)
  15. The Babysitter’s Code (2008)

Short Story Collections In Publication Order

  1. Hardly Knew Her (2008)
  2. Hints of Heloise (2012)
  3. Different for Girls (2018)
  4. Nasty Girls (2018)
  5. The Weaker Sex (2018)
  6. Seasonal Work: Stories (2022)

Non-Fiction Books In Publication Order

  1. My Life as a Villainess (2020)

Akashic Drug Chronicles Books In Publication Order

  1. The Cocaine Chronicles (With: Lee Child,Ken Bruen,Jervey Tervalon) (2005)
  2. The Mari*juana Chronicles (By:Jonathan Santlofer) (2013)
  3. The Nicotine Chronicles (By:Lee Child,Joyce Carol Oates,Hannah Tinti,,Cara Black,,,Jonathan Ames) (2020)

Bibliomysteries Books In Publication Order

  1. The Book of Virtue (By:Ken Bruen) (2012)
  2. Pronghorns of the Third Reich (By:C.J. Box) (2012)
  3. The Book Thing (2012)
  4. The Book Case (By:Nelson DeMille) (2012)
  5. An Acceptable Sacrifice (By:Jeffery Deaver) (2012)
  6. Death Leaves a Bookmark (By:William Link) (2012)
  7. The Final Testament (By:Peter Blauner) (2013)
  8. Rides a Stranger (By:David Bell) (2013)
  9. The Long Sonata of the Dead (By:Andrew Taylor) (2013)
  10. The Book of Ghosts (By:Reed Farrel Coleman) (2013)
  11. The Compendium of Srem (By:F. Paul Wilson) (2014)
  12. What’s in a Name? (By:Thomas H. Cook) (2014)
  13. Remaindered (By:Peter Lovesey) (2014)
  14. The Sequel (By:R.L. Stine) (2014)
  15. The Gospel of Sheba (By:Lyndsay Faye) (2014)
  16. The Nature of My Inheritance (By:Bradford Morrow) (2014)
  17. It’s in the Book (By:Mickey Spillane) (2014)
  18. The Scroll (By:Anne Perry) (2014)
  19. The Book of the Lion (By:Thomas Perry) (2015)
  20. The Little Men (By:Megan Abbott) (2015)
  21. Condor in the Stacks (By:James Grady) (2015)
  22. Mystery, Inc. (By:Joyce Carol Oates) (2015)
  23. Every Seven Years (By:Denise Mina) (2015)
  24. From the Queen (By:Carolyn Hart) (2015)
  25. The Travelling Companion (By:Ian Rankin) (2016)
  26. Citadel (By:Stephen Hunter) (2016)
  27. Reconciliation Day (By:Christopher Fowler) (2016)
  28. Dead Dames Don’t Sing (By:John Harvey) (2016)
  29. The Haze (By:James W. Hall) (2016)
  30. Hoodoo Harry (By:Joe R. Lansdale) (2017)
  31. The Pretty Little Box (By:Charles Todd) (2018)
  32. Seven Years (By:Peter Robinson) (2018)
  33. The Hemingway Valise (By:Robert Olen Butler) (2018)
  34. The Last Honest Horse Thief (By:Michael Koryta) (2018)
  35. The Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository (By:John Connolly) (2018)

Bibliomysteries Books In Chronological Order

  1. The Book of Virtue (By:Ken Bruen) (2012)
  2. The Scroll (By:Anne Perry) (2014)
  3. Pronghorns of the Third Reich (By:C.J. Box) (2012)
  4. An Acceptable Sacrifice (By:Jeffery Deaver) (2012)
  5. Death Leaves a Bookmark (By:William Link) (2012)
  6. Seven Years (By:Peter Robinson) (2018)
  7. The Book Thing (2012)
  8. The Book of Ghosts (By:Reed Farrel Coleman) (2013)
  9. The Long Sonata of the Dead (By:Andrew Taylor) (2013)
  10. The Final Testament (By:Peter Blauner) (2013)
  11. Rides a Stranger (By:David Bell) (2013)
  12. What’s in a Name? (By:Thomas H. Cook) (2014)
  13. It’s in the Book (By:Mickey Spillane) (2014)
  14. The Nature of My Inheritance (By:Bradford Morrow) (2014)
  15. Remaindered (By:Peter Lovesey) (2014)
  16. The Compendium of Srem (By:F. Paul Wilson) (2014)
  17. The Gospel of Sheba (By:Lyndsay Faye) (2014)
  18. The Sequel (By:R.L. Stine) (2014)
  19. The Book of the Lion (By:Thomas Perry) (2015)
  20. The Little Men (By:Megan Abbott) (2015)
  21. From the Queen (By:Carolyn Hart) (2015)
  22. Every Seven Years (By:Denise Mina) (2015)
  23. Citadel (By:Stephen Hunter) (2016)
  24. Condor in the Stacks (By:James Grady) (2015)
  25. Mystery, Inc. (By:Joyce Carol Oates) (2015)
  26. The Travelling Companion (By:Ian Rankin) (2016)
  27. The Haze (By:James W. Hall) (2016)
  28. Dead Dames Don’t Sing (By:John Harvey) (2016)
  29. Reconciliation Day (By:Christopher Fowler) (2016)
  30. Hoodoo Harry (By:Joe R. Lansdale) (2017)
  31. The Pretty Little Box (By:Charles Todd) (2018)
  32. The Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository (By:John Connolly) (2018)
  33. The Hemingway Valise (By:Robert Olen Butler) (2018)
  34. The Last Honest Horse Thief (By:Michael Koryta) (2018)
  35. The Book Case (By:Nelson DeMille) (2012)

Akashic Noir Books In Publication Order

  1. Bronx Noir (By:S J Rozan) (2003)
  2. Chicago Noir (By:) (2005)
  3. Baltimore Noir (2006)
  4. New Orleans Noir (By:Julie Smith) (2007)
  5. Los Angeles Noir (By:Denise Hamilton) (2007)
  6. Wall Street Noir (By:Peter Spiegelman) (2007)
  7. Los Angeles Noir 2: The Classics (By:Joseph Hansen,Raymond Chandler,James Ellroy,Ross Macdonald,Margaret Millar,James M. Cain,Walter Mosley,William Gault,Leigh Brackett,Naomi Hirahara,Chester Himes,Jervey Tervalon,,Denise Hamilton) (2010)
  8. Mexico City Noir (By:Paco Ignacio Taibo II) (2010)
  9. Haiti Noir (By:Edwidge Danticat) (2010)
  10. Kingston Noir (By:Patricia Powell,,,,,Marlon James) (2012)
  11. Haiti Noir 2 (By:Edwidge Danticat) (2013)
  12. St. Louis Noir (By:Scott Phillips) (2016)
  13. Montana Noir (By:James Grady) (2017)
  14. Buenos Aires Noir (By:Ernesto Mallo) (2017)
  15. Speculative Los Angeles (By:Duane Swierczynski,Stephen Blackmoore,,,Ben H. Winters,Charles Yu,,,Denise Hamilton) (2021)

Hush Collection Books In Publication Order

  1. Treasure (By:Oyinkan Braithwaite) (2020)
  2. Snowflakes (By:Ruth Ware) (2020)
  3. Buried (By:Jeffery Deaver) (2020)
  4. Let Her Be (By:Lisa Unger) (2020)
  5. The Gift (By:Alison Gaylin) (2020)
  6. Slow Burner (2020)

Anthologies In Publication Order

  1. Tart Noir (2003)
  2. In the Shadow of the Master (2003)
  3. The Cocaine Chronicles (2005)
  4. Dangerous Women (2005)
  5. Damn Near Dead (2006)
  6. Mystery Writers of America Presents Death Do Us Part: New Stories About Love, Lust, and Murder (2006)
  7. The Best American Mystery Stories 2007 (2007)
  8. Killer Year: Stories to Die For… (2008)
  9. Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading (2009)
  10. By Hook or By Crook and 30 More of the Best Crime and Mystery Stories of the Year (2010)
  11. A Study in Sherlock (2011)
  12. Mystery Writers of America Presents The Mystery Box (2013)
  13. The Best American Mystery Stories 2014 (2014)
  14. Mystery Writers of America Presents Ice Cold (2014)
  15. Pretty Bit*ches: On Being Called Crazy, Angry, Bossy, Frumpy, Feisty, and All the Other Words That Are Used to Undermine Women (2020)

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Laura Lippman Books Overview

Baltimore Blues

‘Courier New’

Until her paper, the BALTIMORE STAR, crashed and burned, Tess Monaghan was a damn good reporter who knew her hometown intimately from historic Fort McHenry to the crumbling projects of Cherry Hill. Now gainfully unemployed at twenty nine, she’s willing to take any freelance job to pay the rent including a bit of unorthodox snooping for her rowing buddy, Darryl ‘Rock’ Paxton.

In a city where someone is murdered almost everyday, attorney Michael Abramowitz’s death should be just another statistic. But the slain lawyer’s notoriety and his noontime trysts with Rock’s fiancee make the case front page news…
and points to Rock as the likely murderer. But trying to prove her friend’s innocence couls prove costly to Tess and add her name to that infamous ever growing list.

Until her paper, the BALTIMORE STAR, crashed and burned, Tess Monaghan was a damn good reporter who knew her hometown intimately from historic Fort McHenry to the crumbling projects of Cherry Hill. Now gainfully unemployed at twenty nine, she’s willing to take any freelance job to pay the rent including a bit of unorthodox snooping for her rowing buddy, Darryl &quotRock’ Paxton.

In a city where someone is murdered almost everyday, attorney Michael Abramowitz’s death should be just another statistic. But the slain lawyer’s notoriety and his noontime trysts with Rock’s fiancee make the case front page news…
and points to Rock as the likely murderer. But trying to prove her friend’s innocence couls prove costly to Tess and add her name to that infamous ever growing list.

Charm City

As a practiced reporter until her newspaper went to that great pressroom in the sky, P.I. Tess Monaghan knows and loves every inch of her native Baltimore, even the parts being slobbered on by the sad sack greyhound she’s minding for her uncle. It’s a quirky city where baseball reigns, but lately homicide seems to be the second most popular local sport. Business tycoon ‘Wink’ Wynkowski is trying to change all that by bringing pro basketball back to town, and everybody’s rooting fro him until a devastating, muckraking expose of his lurid past appears on the front page of the Baltimore Beacon Light. It’s a surprise even to the Blight’s editors, who thought they’d killed the piece. Instead, the piece killed Wink who’s found in his garage with the car running.

Now the Blight wants to nail the unknown computer hacker who planted the lethal story, and the assignment is right up the alley of a former newshound like Tess. But it doesn’t take long for her to discover deeper, darker secrets, and to realize that this situation is really more about whacking than hacking. It’s just murder in Baltimore these days and Tess Monaghan herself might be next on the list.

As a practiced reporter until her newspaper went to that great pressroom in the sky, P.I. Tess Monaghan knows and loves every inch of her native Baltimore, even the parts being slobbered on by the sad sack greyhound she’s minding for her uncle. It’s a quirky city where baseball reigns, but lately homicide seems to be the second most popular local sport. Business tycoon Wink Wynkowski is trying to change all that by bringing pro basketball back to town, and everybody’s rooting fro him until a devastating, muckraking expose of his lurid past appears on the front page of the Baltimore Beacon Light. It’s a surprise even to the Blight’s editors, who thought they’d killed the piece. Instead, the piece killed Wink who’s found in his garage with the car running.

Now the Blight wants to nail the unknown computer hacker who planted the lethal story, and the assignment is right up the alley of a former newshound like Tess. But it doesn’t take long for her to discover deeper, darker secrets, and to realize that this situation is really more about whacking than hacking. It’s just murder in Baltimore these days and Tess Monaghan herself might be next on the list.

Butchers Hill

Tess Monaghan has finally made the move and hung out her shingle as a p.i. for hire, complete with an office in Butchers Hill. Maybe it’s not the best address in Baltimore, but you gotta start somewhere, and Tess’s greyhound Esskay has no trouble taking marathon naps anywhere there’s a roof. Then in walks Luther Beale, the notorious vigilante who five years ago shot a boy for vandalizing his car. Just out of prison, he says he wants to make reparations to the kids who witnessed his crime, so he needs Tess to find them. But once she starts snooping, the witnesses start dying. Is the ‘Butcher of Butchers Hill‘ at it again? Like it or not, Tess is embroiled in a case that encompas*ses the powers that be, a heartless system that has destroyed the lives of children, and a nasty trail of money and lies leading all the way back to Butchers Hill.

In Big Trouble

Join the world of New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman’s Tess Monaghan in the Shamus and Anthony Award winning fourth book in the acclaimed series

In Big Trouble

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.

The Sugar House

A client named Ruthie who seems to know Tess’s father a little too well asks the newspaperwoman turned p.i. to investigate a year old ‘Jane Doe’ murder and its grim aftermath. Ruthie’s low life brother, Henry, confessed to killing a teenager runaway over a bottle of glue and, a month into his prison term, he met the same fate as his victim. Following a precious few tantalizing clues, Tess sets off on a path that is leading her from Baltimore’s exclusive Inner Harbor to the city’s seediest neighborhoods. But it’s the shocking discovery of the runaway’s true identity that turns her hunt deadly. Suddenly a supposedly solved murder case is turning up newer, fresher corpses and newer, scarier versions of The Sugar House places that look sweet and safe…
but only from the outside.

In a Strange City

It is a treasured Charm City tradition. Every year on Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday a figure wrapped in a dark cloak visits the renowned author’s Baltimore gravesite and leaves behind three roses and half a bottle of cognac. No Baltimorean worth his or her salt would ever dream of trying to determine the true identity of the ‘Poe Toaster,’ thereby possibly destroying a cherished ritual. That’s why Tess Monaghan refuses to help the odd, piglike man who wants to hire her to unmask the Visitor, who the Porcine One claims has deceived and cheated him. If nothing else, the rejected client’s story has whetted Tess’s curiosity and so the following evening she and her enthusiastic boyfriend, Crow, are braving the winter chill and the graveyard dark to observe the strange, beloved rite from a respectful distance. But on this particular January 19, two caped figures approach Poe’s resting place. One leaves the tribute and escapes into the night. The other dies there, felled by an assassin’s bullet. Tess sees nothing that the other witnesses didn’t see. She isn’t working for anyone at the moment and the homicide detective who caught this particular ‘red ball’ is an old and dangerous nemesis so it might be worth her while to avoid this case like the plague. But someone else wants Tess involved in the worst way. A stranger is surreptitiously leaving her roses and cognac and bizarre, cryptic clues someone who knows Tess’s habits, someone who knows who she knows and where she lives. And suddenly home is a safe haven no longer. Like it or not, Tess Monaghan is now a prime player in the murderous drama. And as the body count rises even higher, she uncovers links in a chain of greed, lies, false histories, and deadly acquisitiveness, a dangerously twisted mystery worthy of Poe himself.

The Last Place

Over the course of six novels featuring Baltimore private investigator Tess Monaghan, author Laura Lippman has won a mantel full of awards including the Edgar, consistently resounding critical acclaim ‘The best mystery writing around’ Village Voice, and a well deserved reputation among readers as one of the very brightest lights in contemporary crime fiction a reputation now brilliantly reconfirmed as Tess returns to find a nightmare in The Last Place she ever thought to look for it. In hot legal water and court ordered therapy for having assaulted a potential child molester, Tess Monaghan is more than ready for a distraction. So she agrees to look into a series of unsolved homicides that date back over the past six years despite the fact that the assignment originates in part from a most troubling source: wealthy Baltimore benefactor Luisa O’Neal, who was both instrumental in launching Tess’s present career and intimately connected with the murder of Tess’s former boyfriend. There are other troubling aspects as well. Apart from the suspicion that each death was the result of domestic violence, nothing else seems to connect them, Five lives those of four women and one man were destroyed by fire, gunshot, and hit and run, and all five cases have gone ice cold. Though Luisa’s nonprofit organization hires Tess simply to review old police documents for inconsistencies and investigative blunders, curiosity is soon leading the P.I. off the paper trail. And it just may get her killed. Tess’s search for connecting threads takes her beyond the Charm City limits and into dangerously unfamiliar territory. With the help of a police officer obsessed with bringing a murderer down, she follows scant leads and intuition into the remotest corners of Maryland, where a psychopath can hide as easily in the fabric of a tiny, rough hewn fishing community as in the alleys and shadows of bustling Baltimore. Straying far from everything that’s familiar and safe in her life, Tess is suddenly cast into a terrifying cat and mouse game with an ingenious slayer who changes identities as often and effortlessly as clothing. Because a single common link to five senseless murders is beginning to emerge with shocking clarity to tie the loose ends together into one bloody knot…
and the link is Tess Monaghan herself.

By a Spider’s Thread

The winner of every major literary award in crime fiction, Laura Lippman brings back her complex and vulnerably human Baltimore P.I., Tess Monaghan, in a tense, expertly spun tale of a family torn asunder by forces it can barely comprehend.

Mark Rubin’s family is missing and the police can’t do a thing because all the evidence indicates that his wife left willingly. So the successful furrier turns to Tess Monaghan, hoping she can help him find his wife and three children. Tess doesn’t know quite what to make of Rubin, a wealthy Orthodox Jew who refuses to shake her hand and doles out vitally important information in grudging dribs and drabs. According to her client, he and his beautiful wife, Natalie, had a flawless, happy marriage. Yet one day, without any warning or explanation, Natalie gathered up their children and vanished.

Tapping into a network of fellow investigators spread across the country, Tess is soon able to locate the runaway wife and her stolen progeny, moving furtively from state to state, town to town. But the Rubins are not alone. A man is traveling with them, a stranger described by witnesses as ‘handsome’ and ‘charming’ but otherwise unremarkable to these casual observers, who have no way of sensing the fury beneath his smooth surface.

The motive behind Natalie’s reckless flight lies somewhere in the gap between what Mark Rubin will not say and what he refuses to believe. An intricate web of betrayal and vengeance is already beginning to unravel, as memory begets rage and rage leads to desperation and murder. And suddenly much more than one man’s future happiness and stubborn pride are in peril; the lives of three innocent children are dangling by the slenderest of threads.

No Good Deeds

From Laura Lippman, one of the most critically acclaimed crime fiction writers today, comes an intriguing new tale of mystery and suspense with everyone’s favorite P.I., Tess Monaghan. This time Tess is involved in a frightening investigation that will make her question her loyalties and threaten those she holds most dear…
.

No Good Deeds

For Tess Monaghan, the unsolved murder of a young federal prosecutor is nothing more than a theoretical problem, one of several cases to be deconstructed in her new gig as a consultant to the local newspaper. But it becomes all too tangible when her boyfriend brings home a young street kid who doesn’t even realize he holds an important key to the man’s death. Tess agrees to protect the boy’s identity no matter what, especially when one of his friends is killed in what appears to be a case of mistaken identity. But with federal agents determined to learn the boy’s name at any cost, Tess finds out just how far even official authorities will go to get what they want. Soon she’s facing felony charges and her boyfriend, Crow, has gone into hiding with his young prot g , so Tess can’t deliver the kid to investigators even if she wants to. Time and time again Tess is reminded of her father’s old joke, the one about the most terrifying sentence in the English language: ‘We’re from the government and we’re here to help.’

Another Thing to Fall

The California dream weavers have invaded Charm City with their cameras, their stars, and their controversy…
.

When private investigator Tess Monaghan literally runs into the crew of the fledgling TV series Mann of Steel while sculling, she expects sharp words and evil looks, not an assignment. But the company has been plagued by a series of disturbing incidents since its arrival on location in Baltimore: bad press, union threats, and small, costly on set ‘accidents’ that have wreaked havoc with its shooting schedule. As a result, Mann’s creator, Flip Tumulty, the son of a Hollywood legend, is worried for the safety of his young female lead, Selene Waites, and asks Tess to serve as her bodyguard/babysitter. Tumulty’s concern may be well founded. Not long ago a Baltimore man was discovered dead in his own home, surrounded by photos of the beautiful, difficult superstar in the making.

In the past, Tess has had enough trouble guarding her own body. Keeping a spoiled movie princess under wraps may be more than she can handle even with the help of Tess’s icily unflappable friend Whitney since Selene is not as naive as everyone seems to think, and far more devious than she initially appears to be. This is not Tess’s world. And these are not her kind of people, with their vanities, their self serving agendas and invented personas, and their remarkably skewed visions of reality from the series’ aging, shallow, former pretty boy leading man to its resentful, always on the make cowriter to the officious young assistant who may be too hungry for her own good.

But the fish out of water P.I. is abruptly pulled back in by an occurrence she’s all too familiar with murder. Suddenly the wall of secrets around Mann of Steel is in danger of toppling, leaving shattered dreams, careers, and lives scattered among the ruins a catastrophe that threatens the people Tess cares about…
and the city she loves.

The Girl in the Green Raincoat

In the third trimester of her pregnancy, Baltimore private investigator Tess Monaghan is under doctor’s orders to remain immobile. Bored and restless, reduced to watching the world go by outside her window, she takes small comfort in the mundane events she observes…
like the young woman in a green raincoat who walks her dog at the same time every day. Then one day the dog is running free and its owner is nowhere to be seen. Certain that something is terribly wrong, and incapable of leaving well enough alone, Tess is determined to get to the bottom of the dog walker’s abrupt disappearance, even if she must do so from her own bedroom. But her inquisitiveness is about to fling open a dangerous Pandora’s box of past crimes and troubling deaths…
and she’s not only putting her own life in jeopardy but also her unborn child’s. Previously serialized in the New York Times, and now published in book form for the very first time, The Girl in the Green Raincoat is a masterful Hitchcockian thriller from one of the very best in the business: multiple award winner Laura Lippman.

Every Secret Thing

Since her debut in 1997, Laura Lippman has won virtually every major prize in the mystery writing field and earned the highest critical praise for her Tess Monaghan series, which has been called ‘spectacular’ New York Times, ‘terrific fun’ Washington Post, ‘a delight’ Baltimore Sun, and ‘the best mystery writing around’ Village Voice. Now Lippman steps outside her series to deliver her darkest, most troubling tale and vaults into the crime fiction elite with a haunting story of murder, fate’s accidents, and the stories we tell ourselves when we try to make sense of the unthinkable. On a July afternoon two little girls, banished from a birthday party, take a wrong turn onto an unfamiliar Baltimore street and encounter an abandoned stroller with a baby inside it. Dutiful Alice Manning and unpredictable Ronnie Fuller only want to be helpful, to be good. People like children who are good, Alice thinks. But whatever the girls’ real intentions, things go horribly awry and three families are destroyed. Seven years later Alice and Ronnie are heading home again only separately this time, their fragile bond long shattered, their secrets still closely kept. Advised to avoid each other, they enter a world where they essentially have no past. In exchange, they are promised a fresh start, the chance to mold their own future. That promise is broken when a child disappears, under disturbingly similar circumstances. And the adults in Alice’s and Ronnie’s lives the parents, the lawyers, the police realize that they must now confront the shattering truths they couldn’t face seven years earlier. Or another mother will lose her child. Homicide detective Nancy Porter was a rookie cop when she solved the original case with a bit of freakish luck and almost derailed her own career. Adept at finding the small things that can make or break a homicide case, now she must master the larger picture in order to understand where guilt truly lies. For no one is innocent in this world. Not even the children.

To the Power of Three

The three girls have been inseparable best friends since third grade Josie, the athletic one; Perri, the brilliant, acerbic drama queen; and Kat the beauty, who also had brains, grace, and a heart open to all around her. But their last day of high school becomes their final day together after one of them brings a gun to school to resolve a mysterious feud. When the police arrive, they discover two wounded girls. The third girl is dead, killed instantly by a shot to the heart. For the shell shocked parents, teachers, administrators, and students, healing must begin with answers to the usual questions but only if the answers are safe ones, answers that will lead back to one girl and one family and absolve everyone else. For Homicide Sgt. Harold Lenhardt, this case is a mystery with more twists than these grief stricken suburbanites are willing to acknowledge and the sole lucid survivor, a girl with a teenager’s uncanny knack for stonewalling, strikes him as being less than honest. What is she concealing? Is she trying to protect herself or someone else? Even the simplest secrets can kill and kill again if no one is willing to confront them. Performed by Linda Emond

What the Dead Know / Little Sister

Thirty years ago two sisters disappeared from a shopping mall. Their bodies were never found and those familiar with the case have always been tortured by these questions: How do you kidnap two girls? Who or what could have lured the two sisters away from a busy mall on a Saturday afternoon without leaving behind a single clue or witness?

Now a clearly disoriented woman involved in a rush hour hit and run claims to be the younger of the long gone Bethany sisters. But her involuntary admission and subsequent attempt to stonewall investigators only deepens the mystery. Where has she been? Why has she waited so long to come forward? Could her abductor truly be a beloved Baltimore cop? There isn’t a shred of evidence to support her story, and every lead she gives the police seems to be another dead end a dying, incoherent man, a razed house, a missing grave, and a family that disintegrated long ago, torn apart not only by the crime but by the fissures the tragedy revealed in what appeared to be the perfect household.

In a story that moves back and forth across the decades, there is only one person who dares to be skeptical of a woman who wants to claim the identity of one Bethany sister without revealing the fate of the other. Will he be able to discover the truth?

Life Sentences

Author Cassandra Fallows has achieved remarkable success by baring her life on the page. Her two widely popular memoirs continue to sell briskly, acclaimed for their brutal, unexpurgated candor about friends, family, lovers and herself. But now, after a singularly unsuccessful stab at fiction, Cassandra believes she may have found the story that will enable her triumphant return to nonfiction.

When Cassandra was a girl, growing up in a racially diverse middle class neighborhood in Baltimore, her best friends were all black: elegant, privileged Donna; sharp, shrewd Tisha; wild and worldly Fatima. A fifth girl orbited their world a shy, quiet, unobtrusive child named Calliope Jenkins who, years later, would be accused of killing her infant son. Yet the boy’s body was never found and Calliope’s unrelenting silence on the subject forced a judge to jail her for contempt. For seven years, Calliope refused to speak and the court was finally forced to let her go. Cassandra believes this still unsolved real life mystery, largely unknown outside Baltimore, could be her next bestseller.

But her homecoming and latest journey into the past will not be welcomed by everyone, especially by her former friends, who are unimpressed with Cassandra’s success and are insistent on their own version of their shared history. And by delving too deeply into Calliope’s dark secrets, Cassandra may inadvertently unearth a few of her own forcing her to reexamine the memories she holds most precious, as the stark light of truth illuminates a mother’s pain, a father’s betrayal…
and what really transpired on a terrible day that changed not only a family but an entire country.

I’d Know You Anywhere / Don’t Look Back

The acclaimed New York Times bestselling author returns with a new stand alone novel a powerful and utterly riveting tale that skillfully moves between past and present to explore the lasting effects of crime on a victim’s life…
.I’d Know You Anywhere Eliza Benedict cherishes her peaceful, ordinary suburban life with her successful husband and children, thirteen year old Iso and eight year old Albie. But her tranquillity is shattered when she receives a letter from the last person she ever expects or wants to hear from: Walter Bowman. There was your photo, in a magazine. Of course, you are older now. Still, I’d know you anywhere. In the summer of 1985, when she was fifteen, Eliza was kidnapped by Walter and held hostage for almost six weeks. He had killed at least one girl and Eliza always suspected he had other victims as well. Now on death row in Virginia for the rape and murder of his final victim, Walter seems to be making a heartfelt act of contrition as his execution nears. Though Eliza wants nothing to do with him, she’s never forgotten that Walter was most unpredictable when ignored. Desperate to shelter her children from this undisclosed trauma in her past, she cautiously makes contact with Walter. She’s always wondered why Walter let her live, and perhaps now he’ll tell her and share the truth about his other victims. Yet as Walter presses her for more and deeper contact, it becomes clear that he is after something greater than forgiveness. He wants Eliza to remember what really happened that long ago summer. He wants her to save his life. And Eliza, who has worked hard for her comfortable, cocooned life, will do anything to protect it even if it means finally facing the events of that horrifying summer and the terrible truth she’s kept buried inside. An edgy, utterly gripping tale of psychological manipulation that will leave readers racing to the final page, I’d Know You Anywhere is a virtuoso performance from acclaimed, award winning author Laura Lippman that is sure to be her biggest hit yet.

The Most Dangerous Thing / The Innocents

Some secrets can t be kept…
. The Most Dangerous Thing Years ago, they were all the best of friends. But as time passed and circumstances changed, they grew apart, became adults with families of their own, and began to forget about the past and the terrible lie they all shared. But now Gordon, the youngest and wildest of the five, has died and the others are thrown together for the first time in years. And then the revelations start. Could their long ago lie be the reason for their troubles today? Is it more dangerous to admit to what they ve done or is it the strain of keeping the secret that is beginning to wear on them and everyone close to them? Each one of these old friends has to wonder if their secret has been discovered and if someone within the circle is out to destroy them.

Hardly Knew Her

New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman has been hailed as one of the best crime fiction writers in America today, winning virtually every major award in the genre. The author of the enormously popular series featuring Baltimore P.I. Tess Monaghan as well as three critically lauded stand alone novels, Lippman now turns her attention to short stories and reveals another level of mastery. Lippman sets many of the stories in this sterling anthology, Hardly Knew Her, in familiar territory: her beloved Baltimore, from downtown to its affluent suburbs, where successful businessmen go to shocking lengths to protect what they have or ruthlessly expand their holdings, while dissatisfied wives find murderous ways to escape their lives. But Lippman is also unafraid to travel to New Orleans, to an unnamed southwestern city, and even to Dublin, the backdrop for the lethal clash of two not so innocents abroad. Tess Monaghan is here, in two stories and a profile, aligning herself with various underdogs. And in her extraordinary, never before published novella, Scratch a Woman, Lippman takes us deep into the private world of a high priced call girl/madam and devoted soccer mom, exploring the mystery of what may, in fact, be written in the blood. Each of these ingenious tales is a gem sometimes poignant, sometimes humorous, always filled with delightfully unanticipated twists and reversals. For people who have yet to read Lippman, get ready to experience the spellbinding power of ‘one of today’s most pleasing storytellers, hailed for her keen psychological insights and her compelling characterizations,’ San Diego Union Tribune, who has ‘invigorated the crime fiction arena with smart, innovative, and exciting work’ George Pelecanos. As for longtime devotees of her multiple award winning novels, you’ll discover that you hardly know her.

The Cocaine Chronicles (With: Lee Child,Ken Bruen,Jervey Tervalon)

‘The best stories in The Cocaine Chronicles…
are equal to the best fiction being written today.’ New York Journal of Books’The perfect stocking stuffer for your uncle in AA.’ New York Observer’The Cocaine Chronicles is a pure, jangled hit of urban, gritty, and raw noir. Caution: these stories are addicting.’ Harlan Coben, award winning author of Just One Look’Every story is A . All contributors are top notch…
. Should be required reading for writers who want to master the craft of the short story.’ Cherry BleedsOriginal stories by Susan Straight, Lee Child, Laura Lippman, Ken Bruen, Jerry Stahl, Nina Revoyr, Bill Moody, Donnell Alexander, Deborah Vankin, Robert Ward, Manuel Ramos, and others. Gary Phillips writes for several mediums from novels to screenplays to comic books, and lives in Los Angeles, California. Jervey Tervalon is the author of All the Trouble You Need, Understand This, and the Los Angeles Times bestseller Dead Above Ground. He lives in Altadena, California.

Bronx Noir (By:S J Rozan)

Brand new stories by: Thomas Adcock, Kevin Baker, Thomas Bentil, Lawrence Block, Jerome Charyn, Suzanne Chazin, Terrence Cheng, Ed Dee, Joanne Dobson, Robert Hughes, Marlon James, Sandra Kitt, Rita Laken, Miles Marshall Lewis, Pat Picciarelli, Abraham Rodriguez Jr., S.J. Rozan, Steven Torres, and Joe Wallace.

S.J. Rozan was born and raised in the Bronx and is a lifelong New Yorker. She’s the author of eight novels in the Lydia Chin/Bill Smith series, and of the stand alones Absent Friends and In This Rain forthcoming. Her books have won Edgar, Nero, Macavity, and Shamus awards for best novel. She’s at work on another series novel, Shanghai Moon.

Chicago Noir (By:)

Chicago Noir is a legitimate heir to the noble literary tradition of the greatest city in America. Nelson Algren and James Farrell would be proud. Stephen Elliott, author of Happy Baby If ever a city was made to be the home of noir, it’s Chicago. These writers go straight to Chicago s noir heart. Aleksandar Hemon, author of Nowhere ManBrand new stories by: Neal Pollack, Achy Obejas, Alexai Galaviz Budziszewski, Adam Langer, Joe Meno, Peter Orner, Kevin Guilfoile, Bayo Ojikutu, Jeff Allen, Luciano Guerriero, Claire Zulkey, Andrew Ervin, M.K. Meyers, Todd Dills, C.J. Sullivan, Daniel Buckman, Amy Sayre Roberts, and Jim Arndorfer. The city of Chicago has spent much time and money over the last decade marketing itself as a tourist friendly place for the whole family. It’s got a shiny new Millennium Park, a spaceship in the middle of Soldier Field, and thousands of identical faux brick condo buildings that seem to spring from the ground overnight. Chicago’s rough and tumble tough guy reputation has been replaced by a postcard with a lake view. But that city’s not gone. The hard bitten streets once represented by James Farrell and Nelson Algren may have shifted locales, and they may be populated by different ethnicities, but Chicago is still a place where people struggle to survive and where, for many, crime is the only means for their survival. The stories in Chicago Noir reclaim that territory. Chicago Noir is populated by hired killers and jazzmen, drunks and dreamers, corrupt cops and ticket scalpers and junkies. It’s the Chicago that the Department of Tourism doesn’t want you to see, a place where hard cases face their sad fates, and pay for their sins in blood. These are stories about blocks that visitors are afraid to walk. They tell of a Chicago beyond Oprah, Michael Jordan, and deep dish pizza. This isn’t someone’s dream of Chicago. It’s not even a nightmare. It’s just the real city, unfiltered. Chicago Noir.

Baltimore Noir

Brand new stories by: David Simon, Laura Lippman, Tim Co*ckey, Rob Hiaasen, Robert Ward, Sujata Massey, Jack Bludis, Rafael Alvarez, Marcia Talley, Joseph Wallace, Lisa Respers France, Charlie Stella, Sarah Weinman, Dan Fesperman, Jim Fusilli, and Ben Neihart.

Laura Lippman has lived in Baltimore most of her life and she would have spent even more time there if the editors of the Sun had agreed to hire her earlier. She attended public schools and has lived in several of the city’s distinctive neighborhoods, including Dickeyville, Tuscany Canterbury, Evergreen, and South Federal Hill.

Los Angeles Noir (By:Denise Hamilton)

Brand new stories by: Michael Connelly, Janet Fitch, Susan Straight, Hector Tobar, Patt Morrison, Robert Ferrigno, Gary Phillips, Christopher Rice, Naomi Hirahara, Jim Pascoe, Scott Phillips, Diana Wagman, Lienna Silver, Brian Ascalon Roley, and Denise Hamilton. Denise Hamilton writes the Eve Diamond series. Her books have been shortlisted for the Edgar, Macavity, Anthony, and Willa Cather awards. The Los Angeles Times named Last Lullaby a Best Book of 2004, and it was also a USA Today Summer Pick and a finalist for a Southern California Booksellers Association 2004 award. Her fourth Eve Diamond novel, Savage Garden, is a Los Angeles Times bestseller and was shortlisted for the Southern California Booksellers Association award for Best Mystery of 2005.

Wall Street Noir (By:Peter Spiegelman)

Brand new stories by: John Burdett, Peter Blauner, Charles Ardai, Henry Blodget, Twist Phelan, Larry Light, James Hime, Jason Starr, Lauren Sanders, Tim Broderick, Reed Farrel Coleman, Jim Fusilli, Mark Haskell Smith, and more.

Peter Spiegelman is the Shamus Award winning author of Black Maps Knopf, 2003, Death’s Little Helpers Knopf, 2005, and Red Cat Knopf, 2007, which feature private detective and Wall Street refugee John March. Spiegelman is a twenty year veteran of the financial services and software industries, and has worked with banks, brokerage houses, and central banks in major markets around the world. He lives in Connecticut.

Mexico City Noir (By:Paco Ignacio Taibo II)

Brand new stories by: Paco Ignacio Taibo II, Eugenio Aguirre, Eduardo Antonia Parra, Bernardo Fern ndez Bef, scar de la Borbolla, Rolo D ez, Victor Luiz Gonz lez, F.G. Haghenbeck, Juan Hern ndez Luna, Myriam Laurini, Eduardo Monteverde, and Julia Rodr guez. Paco Ignacio Taibo II was born in Gij n, Spain, and has lived in Mexico since 1958. He is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, which have been published in many languages around the world, including a mystery series starring Mexican Private Investigator H ctor Belascoar n Shayne. He is a professor of history at the Metropolitan University of Mexico City.

Haiti Noir (By:Edwidge Danticat)

Includes brand new stories by: Edwidge Danticat, Rodney Saint Eloi, Madison Smartt Bell, Gary Victor, M.J. Fi vre, Marvin Victor, Yanick Lahens, Louis Philipe Dalembert, Kettly Mars, Marie Ketsia Theodore Pharel, Evelyne Trouillot, Katia Ulysse, Ibi Aanu Zoboi, Nadine Pinede, and others. Haiti has a tragic history and continues to be one of the most destitute places on the planet, especially in the aftermath of the earthquake. Here, however, Edwidge Danticat reveals that even while the subject matter remains dark, the caliber of Haitian writing is of the highest order.

Tart Noir

These are the bad girls we’ve been waiting for. They’re tough enough to take on thugs, tender enough to be moved to tears. Half Philip Marlowe, half femme fatale, their morals are questionable and their attitudes need adjustment. They’re tarts. And they are the hero*ines of this collection with stories by: Jessica Adams Jen Banbury Liza Cody Martina Cole Jenny Colgan Stella Duffy Liz Evans Sparkle Hayter Lauren Henderson Vicki Hendricks Lisa Jewell Laura Lippman Sujata Massey Val McDermid Denise Mina Karen Moline Katy Munger Chris Niles Jenny Siler Karin Slaughter

In the Shadow of the Master

Few have crafted stories as haunting as those by Edgar Allan Poe. Collected here to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Poe’s birth are sixteen of his best tales accompanied by twenty essays from beloved authors, including T. Jefferson Parker, Lawrence Block, Sara Paretsky, and Joseph Wambaugh, among others, on how Poe has changed their life and work. Michael Connelly recounts the inspiration he drew from Poe’s poetry while researching one of his books. Stephen King reflects on Poe’s insight into humanity’s dark side in ‘The Genius of ‘The Tell Tale Heart.” Jan Burke recalls her childhood terror during late night reading sessions. Tess Gerritsen, Nelson DeMille, and others remember the classic B movie adaptations of Poe’s tales. And in ‘The Thief,’ Laurie R. King complains about how Poe stole all the good ideas…
or maybe he just thought of them first. Powerful and timeless, In the Shadow of the Master is a celebration of one of the greatest literary minds of all time. The Mystery Writers of America, founded in 1945, is the foremost organization for mystery writers and other professionals dedicated to the field of crime writing.

Dangerous Women

Prepare to meet the most seductively female and the most shockingly fatal of femmes fatales, brought to you by seventeen of today’s finest authors of mystery and suspense fiction. Award winning editor Otto Penzler presents a collection of short and sizzling masterpieces of kisses and kiss offs, gams and gats, published for the first time anywhere. In ‘Third Party,’ Jay McInerney takes you on a wild ride through the Paris night with a party girl built for speed and sin ‘Rendezvous,’ Nelson DeMille’s first short story in twenty five years, plunges you into a Vietnam jungle where the bloodiest scourge of this man’s army is no man at all back in the U.S.A. of ‘Louly and Pretty Boy,’ Elmore Leonard introduces a Depression era teenage gun moll who loves Pretty Boy Floyd more than she likes knocking off filling stations and Michael Connelly’s colorful and ironic ‘Cielo Azul’ shows how a nameless woman left dead on a Los Angeles hillside can be the most lethal prey of all. These and a bevy of other very bad girls cast their criminal spells through the powerful voices of Lorenzo Carcaterra, Joyce Carol Oates, John Connolly, Thomas H. Cook, Jeffery Deaver, J. A. Jance, Andrew Klavan, Laura Lippman, Ed McBain, Walter Mosley, Anne Perry, Ian Rankin, and S. J. Rozan in stories as irresistible as the antihero*ines that blaze through their pages.’I’m not usually given to superlatives, but Dangerous Women may be the best, most varied, and colorful mystery anthology of all time.’ Janet Evanovich’Otto Penzler knows more about crime fiction than most people know about anything, and proves it once more in this brilliant anthology.’ Robert B. Parker’Wow, what memorable dames! What terrific short stories! Dangerous Women is a winning collection.’ Susan Isaacs

Damn Near Dead

Hard boiled story collection, featuring original ”geezer noir” tales by Jeff Abbott, Megan Abbott, Charles Ardai, Ray Banks, Mark Billingham, Steve Brewer, Ken Bruen, Milton Burton, Reed Farrel Coleman, Colin Cotterill, Bill Crider, Sean Doolittle, Victor Gischler, Allan Guthrie, John Harvey, Simon Kernick, Laura Lippman, Stuart MacBride, Donna Moore, Zo Sharp, Jenny Siler, Jason Starr, Charlie Stella, Duane Swierczynski, Robert Ward, Sarah Weinman and Dave White.

Mystery Writers of America Presents Death Do Us Part: New Stories About Love, Lust, and Murder

From the Civil War–era south to 1950s New York to the present day’s gritty cities and seemingly innocuous suburbs, the eighteen stories in this anthology edited by the award winning mystery writer Harlan Coben chart the complications always surprising, sometimes deadly that arise between lovers, dear friends, and even complete strangers coming together for a single, shocking encounter. In Lee Child’s ‘Safe Enough,’ a blue collar city boy takes up with a wealthy suburban wife, with dire consequences. In Harlan Coben’s ‘Entrapped,’ a woman’s husband disappears and is replaced by a handsome impostor. In Laura Lippman’s ‘One True Love,’ a high end prostitute seeks a radical solution to a public relations problem. And in P. J. Parrish’s ‘One Shot,’ a man returns to his childhood home to learn the truth about a long ago tragedy. Other contributors of original stories include Ridley Pearson, R. L. Stine, Jim Fusilli, Jeff Abbott, Charles Todd, and Tom Savage.

The Best American Mystery Stories 2007

The best selling author Carl Hiaasen takes the reins for the eleventh edition of this series, featuring twenty of the past year’s most distinguished tales of mystery, crime, and suspense. Laura Lippman introduces us to a suburban soccer mom who moonlights as a call girl and who has a fateful encounter with a former client at her son s soccer game. Ridley Pearson traces a famous author of horror tales who becomes trapped in a real one after his wife vanishes while jogging. Joyce Carol Oates travels to a New Jersey racetrack where the animals that break down are of the two legged type. Lawrence Block tells the story of Keller, a hitman for hire who happens to live in Greenwich Village, loves spicy food, and collects stamps as a hobby. And Scott Wolven plunges us into the world of an ex con who takes a job at a private and very illegal Nevada racetrack where each day millions are won and lost. Mostly lost. As Carl Hiaasen notes in his introduction, The stories in this collection would do honor to any anthology of short literature. More than transcending the genre of crime, they blow away its nebulous boundaries. The Best American Mystery Stories 2007 is a powerful collection certain to delight mystery aficionados and all lovers of great fiction.

Killer Year: Stories to Die For…

Killer Year is a group of 13 debut crime/mystery/suspense authors whose books will be published in 2007. The graduating class includes such rising stars as Robert Gregory Browne, Toni McGee Causey, Marcus Sakey, Derek Nikitas, Marc Lecard, JT Ellison, Brett Battles, Jason Pinter, Bill Cameron, Sean Chercover, Patry Francis, Gregg Olsen, and David White. Each of the short stories displaying their talents are introduced by their Killer Year mentors, some of which include bestselling authors Lee Child, Tess Gerritsen and Jeffrey Deaver, with additional stories by Ken Bruen, Allison Brennan and Duane Swierczynski. Bestselling authors Laura Lippman and MJ Rose contribute insightful essays. Inside you’ll read about a small time crook in over his head, a story told backwards with a hero*ine not to be messed with, a tale of boys and the trouble they will get into over a girl, and many more stories of the highest caliber in murder, mayhem, and sheer entertainment. This amazing anthology, edited by the grandmaster Lee Child, is sure to garner lots of attention and keep readers coming back for more.

Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading

Remember that book you read at that time in your life when everything seemed to be going crazy the one book that brought the world into focus and helped soothe your raging teenage angst?

By Hook or By Crook and 30 More of the Best Crime and Mystery Stories of the Year

In this annual staple of the crime fiction world, Ed Gorman and Martin Greenber collect the best short crime fiction of 2009.

A Study in Sherlock

BESTSELLING AUTHORS GO HOLMES IN AN IRRESISTIBLE NEW COLLECTION edited by award winning Sherlockians Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger Neil Gaiman. Laura Lippman. Lee Child. These are just three of eighteen superstar authors who provide fascinating, thrilling, and utterly original perspectives on Sherlock Holmes in this one of a kind book. These modern masters place the sleuth in suspenseful new situations, create characters who solve Holmesian mysteries, contemplate Holmes in his later years, fill gaps in the Sherlock Holmes Canon, and reveal their own personal obsessions with the Great Detective. Thomas Perry, for example, has Dr. Watson tell his tale, in a virtuoso work of alternate history that finds President McKinley approaching the sleuth with a disturbing request; Lee Child sends an FBI agent to investigate a crime near today’s Baker Street only to get a twenty first century shock; Jacqueline Winspear spins a story of a plucky boy inspired by the detective to make his own deductions; and graphic artist Colin Cotterill portrays his struggle to complete this assignment in his hilarious The Mysterious Case of the Unwritten Short Story. In perfect tribute comes this delicious collection of twisty, clever, and enthralling studies of a timeless icon. Featuring stories from Alan BradleyTony BroadbentJan BurkeLionel ChetwyndLee ChildColin Cotterill Neil GaimanLaura LippmanGayle Lynds & John SheldonPhillip & Jerry MargolinMargaret MaronThomas PerryS. J. RozanDana StabenowCharles ToddJacqueline Winspear print version only

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