Hush Hush by Laura Lippman

A baby left in a car on a hot summer day while her mother sits nearby gazing into the water, everyone has a theory on what happened the day that Melisandre Dawes left her baby in her car to die.  Was she crazy?  Suffering from postpartum depression?  Was she going to kill her other two girls as well?  Was she pure evil?  Melisandre was found not guilty by reason of insanity and has come back now ten years later to reconnect with her other two daughters.  She has also hired someone to film this reunion as a documentary.  Detective Tess Monaghan is hired to protect Melisandre and she discovers that there is much more to the story than meets the eye.

Over the past few years, Laura Lippman has become one of my favorite authors.  She writes intriguing mysteries that involve real world characters that could be my family, friends, or neighbors.  One of the best parts of Hush Hush to me was that Tess is a busy mother of young Carla Scout and is doubting her own parenting skills.  Dealing with Melisandre and her mothering skills and problems makes Tess take a look at her own relationship with her daughter.  Tess also finds herself pretty much never seeing Crow, her fiancé, as they are continually switching off work and care of their daughter.  Will they ever find the time to marry?  When will life stop being so busy?

Overall, this is another fantastic novel by Laura Lippman.  I’ve read a couple that have involved Tess Monaghan, but have not read the entire backlog.  This book works well as a stand-alone novel or as a continuous story of Tess.  One thing I really love about Tess is that she grows and changes with time. She is not a cookie cutter detective with no personal growth.  I still need to go back to book one, Baltimore Blues and start my journey with her!  I feel like I’m holding back as it’s always nice to think that there are Laura Lippman books out there still for me to discover.

William Morrow also has a fantastic website at this link which has all sorts of great background on different characters in the novel as well as maps.  Baltimore itself is a wonderful setting and seems to be a character of its own in Lippman’s novels.

Book Source:  Review Copy from William Morrow – Thanks!