Skip to main content

Butchers Hill and In Big Trouble by Laura Lippman














Butchers Hill takes place several months after Charm City concludes. Tess has actually rented office space and hung out her shingle. Her first couple of clients are most interesting: a convicted murderer whose served his time and is interested in becoming an anonymous benefactor to some missing children, and a successful businesswoman intent on finding the daughter she gave up for adoption years ago. Against the advice of her lawyer, the local homicide detective, and sometimes her own better judgment, Tess agrees to help these clients. The intertwined mysteries unfold as Tess once again plumbs the gritty, familiar neighborhoods of Baltimore searching for the lost children. What's wonderful about this growing series is Lippman's shrewd ability to keep the drama real and close to the vest as far as her heroine is concerned. This is Tess' story as much as it is the story of the disenfranchised lower classes of Baltimore and the two worlds collide and mesh in wholly unexpected ways. For Tess and the reader. Well done, Ms. Lippman. Another riveting read.

In Big Trouble picks up not long after the unsettling events of Butchers Hill. Just when this loyal reader was on the brink of breaking down and pleading for a sign of the missing Crow, there he is! Or rather, there his picture is. Sans dreadlocks and sporting an unfamiliar bitter look, Crow's picture is cut out of a newspaper clipping and mailed to Tess via her lawyer Tyner. The headline above the picture reads, "In Big Trouble." Unsure of who sent the hint, Tess struggles with herself for a week before driving down to Virginia to see if Crow's folks have heard from him. To Tess' surprise, his parents insist on hiring her to find their son and soon she's on the road to Texas, leaving her beloved Baltimore behind. It was so fun to see Tess transplanted into unfamiliar territory, forced to be the awkward outsider instead of the cool insider we know and love. Like Baltimore in the previous books, San Antonio is a character in its own right. There are beautiful descriptions of the food, culture, weather, and landscape that made me nostalgic for the years I lived there in my early teens. My favorite Tess book so far.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Anonymous7:14 PM

    Hey, In Big Trouble is my favorite Tess (and Crow) book, too!

    Trisha

    ReplyDelete
  2. Angiegirl11:45 PM

    Get out. I loved it and thought the ending was perfect.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

You Might Also Like

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater, Review + Giveaway!

It seems a long time ago now that I first read Shiver -- the first book in the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy. But looking back I started it on the plane ride to BEA and finished it there in the conference center, fingers gripping the cover tightly, while sitting on the floor in one of the many autograph lines. And now it's May again and BEA is right around the corner and I emerge from my recent and nasty reading slump stupor to find a copy of Linger sitting in my mailbox like a glove thrown down in the dirt. "I will be the one to pull you out," it whispers to me slyly. "Just open me up and take a sip. I promise--one sip is all it will take." And I look at it with fear and longing written all over my face. "You promise?" I ask  intently. "Because it's been a long walk in the cold and I'm not sure I can take another disappointment." "Just open me up," it says, confidence written all over its cover. And so I do. And everythin...
161 comments
Read more

Interview with Diana Peterfreund + Rampant Giveaway!

Ever since I fell in love with Diana Peterfreund 's Secret Society Girl series last year, I've been hoping I'd get the chance to interview her here. Tomorrow marks the release of her new novel, Rampant , and let me tell you that you have not read a book like this before. You can read my review here , but all you really need to know is that it's a story about killer unicorns and the young women who hunt them. You want to read it now, don't you? Oh, yeah, and it's YA and the first in a series! To celebrate the release, Diana graciously answered a few of my most burning questions. As she is always a delight, I know you'll enjoy them as much as I did. First things first: When did the idea for Rampant first hit you and what (if anything) did you know right off the bat? In early 2005, just after selling Secret Society Girl , I had this dream of being chased by a very dangerous unicorn. I woke up and went to go look it up to see if I could figure out the meanin...
120 comments
Read more

Interview with April Lindner + Jane Giveaway!

I'm very excited about today's interviewee. As you know, I had been looking forward to the publication of Jane for months when a review copy happened in my lap and I let out a gasp of joy. Being a modernized retelling of Jane Eyre with a rock star-ized Mr. Rochester named Nico and a cover that hits every last one of my aesthetic buttons, it was sort of made to order for this reader. Needless to say, it more than lived up to my not inconsiderable expectations and I have been recommending it on a pretty much daily basis to family, friends, co-workers, neighbors . . . you get the picture. It's now just under a month until the book is out and, in anticipation of the release, I invited  April Lindner over to dish about all things Jane. She kindly accepted. Please welcome April! First things first: The Cover. I am in deep smit with that cover. Did you have any input and what was your reaction upon seeing it for the first time? I adore the cover too, and was blown away the...
76 comments
Read more