Автор - Laura Lippman

Baltimore Blues

In a city like Baltimore, where someone is murdered almost on a daily basis, Attorney Michael Abramowitz's death should be just another statistic. But for PI Tess Monaghan's client, who is in the frame, time is running short to prove his innocence.

Baltimore Noir

Butchers Hill

Tess Monaghan has finally made the move and hung out her sign as a private investigator for hire, complete with an office in Butchers Hill. Maybe its not the greatest address in Baltimore, but you've got to start somewhere. Then in walks Luther Beale, the notorious vigilante who five years ago shot a boy for vandalising his car. Just out of prison, 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 encompasses 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.

Lo que los muertos saben

Hay preguntas que sólo los muertos podrían responder…En 1975, dos hermanas, de once y quince años, desaparecieron en un centro comercial. Nunca fueron encontradas, y cientos de preguntas quedaron sin respuesta: ¿cómo pudieron secuestrar a dos niñas?, ¿quién o qué consiguió atraerlas fuera del centro sin dejar rastro? Treinta años después, una extraña mujer que se ha visto envuelta en un accidente de tráfico asegura ser una de las niñas. Pero su confesión y las posteriores evasivas con que responde a los investigadores sólo profundizan el misterio. ¿Dónde ha estado todos estos años?

In Big Trouble

A new case forces PI Tess Monaghan to confront her own past and a man she once loved, when she receives a newspaper photograph of an old boyfriend with part of the headline attached that reads: Big Trouble.

In A Strange City

A curious little man attempts to hire PI Tess Monaghan to unmask the Visitor (also known as the Poe Toaster), who has been visiting the Baltimore grave of Edgar Allan Poe every year on 19 January for the past fifty years, leaving three red roses and a half-empty bottle of cognac. The man is committing no crime, and Tess refuses the assignment, but she worries that a less scrupulous private detective may take it on. So she goes to the 19 January vigil as an observer. In the freezing darkness she watches as two cloaked figures approach the grave, appear to embrace and then part. As they walk off in different directions, there's a gunshot and one is killed. Tess quickly learns that the dead man is not the regular Visitor. So who is he? And why was he there? When it turns out that Tess's would-be client had given her a fake name, she knows she must try to find him. And when an old friend from her past surfaces, claiming that the shooting was a homophobic hate crime, things only get more complicated…

I’d Know You Anywhere

Eliza Benedict cherishes her peaceful, ordinary suburban life. But her tranquility is shattered when she receives a letter from the last person she ever expects to hear from: Walter Bowman. There was your photo, in a magazine. I'd know you anywhere.In the summer of 1985, when she was fifteen, Eliza was kidnapped by Walter. He had killed at least one girl and Eliza always suspected he had other victims as well. Now on death row for the rape and murder of his final victim, Walter seems to be making a heartfelt act of contrition. Having wondered why Walter had let her live, she cautiously makes contact with him.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 life, will do anything to protect it – even if it means finally facing the terrible truth she's kept buried inside.

Charm City

As a practised reporter until her newspaper went to that great pressroom in the sky, PI Tess Monaghan knows and loves every inch of her native Baltimore. 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 for 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 newspaper's editors, who thought they'd killed the piece. Instead, the piece killed Wink, who's found in his garage with the car running. Tess is hired to find the unknown computer hacker who planted the lethal story – but it doesn't take long for her to discover deeper, darker secrets…

Co wiedzą zmarli

Wyszły z domu i nigdy nie wróciły. Kilkunastoletnie siostry zniknęły bez śladu. Nigdy nie odnaleziono ich ciał. Nigdy nie rozwiązano zagadki ich zaginięcia.Trzydzieści lat później zagadkowa kobieta powoduje wypadek samochodowy. Przesłuchiwana przez policję wyznaje, że jest jedną z sióstr Bethany – tą, która uszła z życiem z rąk porywacza. Jej oszczędnie dawkowane zeznania są jednak pełne luk i nieścisłości, a wskazywane przez nią tropy okazują się ślepymi uliczkami.Czy naprawdę jest tym, za kogo się podaje? Dlaczego tak długo zwlekała z ujawnieniem się? Co stało się z jej siostrą?W poszukiwaniu odpowiedzi detektyw wydziału zabójstw zagłębia się w przeszłość, z której z porażającą siłą wyłania się ponura tajemnica cierpienia i zbrodni.

Dublin Noir

Brand new stories by: Ken Bruen, Eoin Colfer, Jason Starr, Laura Lippman, Olen Steinhauer, Peter Spiegelman, Kevin Wignall, Jim Fusilli, John Rickards, Patrick J. Lambe, Charlie Stella, Ray Banks, James O. Born, Sarah Weinman, Pat Mullan, Gary Phillips, Craig McDonald, Duane Swierczynski, Reed Farrel Coleman, and others.Irish crime-fiction sensation Ken Bruen and cohorts shine a light on the dark streets of Dublin. Dublin Noir features an awe-inspiring cast of writers who between them have won all major mystery and crime-fiction awards. This collection introduces secret corners of a fascinating city and surprise assaults on the "Celtic Tiger" of modern Irish prosperity.

Every Secret Thing

It is early evening, summer time and hot. Two eleven year old girls, Alice and Ronnie, are on their way home from a swimming party when they happen to see a baby’s stroller, with baby girl sleeping inside, left unattended on the top step of a house. Ronnie says to Alice: “We have to take care of this baby.” But what exactly does she mean? Four days later the body of little Olivia Barnes is discovered in a hut in Baltimore ’s rambling Leakin Park by a young rookie detective, Nancy Porter. What can have happened in those four days to bring about this appalling crime? The girls are arrested and found guilty. Seven years later Ronnie and Alice, now eighteen, are released from their separate prisons, back into their old neighbourhood where the mother of baby Olivia still lives. Another child goes missing, and Nancy Porter and her partner get the case…

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.