Baltimore Blues (Tess Monaghan Mysteries ) (Tess Monaghan, #1)

by Laura Lippman

[ibeforem]

This is a series I'm glad I started. Tess is a little bit lost in her life, seemingly content to get by working here and there and rowing every morning. She finally finds her purpose again when her rowing friend, Rock, asks her to follow his fiancée. This is one of those mysteries that starts out looking like it will go in one direction, but ends up somewhere completely different. We also find out that Lippman isn't an author who's afraid to make some hard decisions. The setting adds a little bit of extra charm for me personally, because my husband is from the Baltimore area and we go there often. I listened to it on audio, and narrator Deborah Hazlett did a great job of illustrating the native Baltimore accent without being cartoonish about it. I can't believe this is my first Laura Lippman book! She writes right up my alley.