Of the six I’ve read, this is the best of the Tess Monaghan novels, which is especially nice since I really didn’t like the previous two–one because I didn’t think it was very good, and one because it felt off-brand.
This is one is also pretty goofy in a lot of ways, almost to the point of absurdity, but she keeps it in check. I think the reason why I liked this one so much is that we’re inching closer and closer to the time I lived in Baltimore, and so the Baltimore I know is shaping up more and more. So this one has the Blue Moon Diner, 8×10, and other places familiar to anyone who lived near Johns Hopkins/Mt Vernon/Hampden.
The mystery involves someone murdering a person in view of dozens of witnesses at a yearly ritual where someone dressed like Poe offers up a kind of sacrifice on his grave, the night he died. Tess finds herself there because a client has asked her to investigate a hoax necklace he bought, and when she witnesses the murder, she realizes that it was probably a set up. The Poe connections are a little overplayed in the series already, so couching them in one of more the effective narratives helps salvage the potential rough trod the story could take. As a native Virginian who currently lives in Richmond, and who lived in Baltimore, my life is pretty well-versed in Poe and has been for 25 years or more. I have mixed feelings about his literary output, more mixed feelings about his literary legacy, and antagonistic feelings about people who obsess with him, so this was a fine line.
What works really well is the ways in which Lippman is clearly becoming more and more confident (and competent) as a novel, and so the parts of the novel that don’t have to be well-written just are. She creates a Rush Limbaugh/Bill O’Reilly type figure and really effectivly puts awful and realistic things into her mouth. Her main characters arc toward decency while also being incrementalists, something that I find accurate. So I am hopeful for the series, especially given the later Laura Lippman novels I’ve also enjoyed.
(Photo: https://www.amazon.com/Strange-City-Tess-Monaghan-Novel-ebook/dp/B000FC12AK/ref=sr_1_1?crid=29RFYRYAWIM62&keywords=in+a+strange+city&qid=1571313697&sprefix=in+a+strange%2Caps%2C243&sr=8-1)