The Girl in the Green Raincoat (Tess Monaghan Series #11)

by Laura Lippman

Overview

“Lippman is a writing powerhouse. ”

—USA Today

 

“I love her books.”

—Harlan Coben

 

New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman—winner of the Edgar® Award and every other major literary prize given for mystery and crime fiction—embroils Baltimore p.i. Tess Monaghan in the strange case of The Girl in the Green Raincoat. Originally serialized in the New York Times, The Girl in the Green Raincoat is now in book form for the very first time—a masterful thriller in the Alfred Hitchcock mode that places a very pregnant, homebound Tess in the center of a murderous puzzle that could cost her her life and the life of her unborn child.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062042378
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	01/18/2011
Series:	Tess Monaghan Series , #11
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	233,842
File size:	484 KB

About the Author

Since Laura Lippman’s debut, she has been recognized as a distinctive voice in mystery fiction and named one of the “essential” crime writers of the last 100 years. Stephen King called her “special, even extraordinary,” and Gillian Flynn wrote, “She is simply a brilliant novelist.” Her books have won most of the major awards in her field and been translated into more than twenty-five languages. She lives in Baltimore and New Orleans with her teenager.

Hometown:

Baltimore, Maryland

Date of Birth:

January 31, 1959

Place of Birth:

Atlanta, Georgia

Education:

B.S., Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, 1981

Editorial Reviews

Originally serialized in the New York Times Magazine, Lippman's Tess Monaghan novella turns the intrepid Baltimore PI's at-risk late-pregnancy bed rest into a compellingly edgy riff on Hitchcock's Rear Window. Lovingly tucked up on her winterized sun porch, Tess marshals her forces--doting artist boyfriend Crow, best friend Whitney Talbot, middle-aged assistant gumshoe Mrs. Blossom, and researcher Dorie Starnes--to probe the disappearance of a chic blonde green-raincoated dog walker she'd been watching from her comfy prison. Tess also takes in the missing woman's abandoned green-slickered Italian greyhound from hell, a miniature canine terrorist whose anti-housebreaking vendetta offers comic relief from Tess's threatened pre-eclampsia, her obsessive unraveling of a complex scam, and her last-trimester spats with Crow about their future. Though postpartum Tess turns alternately weepy and shrill, that condition won't last, and this entertaining romp leaves plenty of hints of detective-mother exploits to come. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Confined to bed rest for the last 12 weeks of her pregnancy, an immobilized Tess Monaghan (In Big Trouble) watches the world around her through binoculars, à la Hitchcock's classic Rear Window, admiring the girl in the green raincoat who walks her greyhound daily on a color-coordinated leash. But when she sees the dog scampering loose, Tess's investigative genes kick in, and she's intent on finding out what happened to the dog's walker, who turns out to be Carole Epstein, third wife of Don Epstein, a man with two dead wives and a dead girlfriend behind him. Despite Epstein's claims that Carole emptied their joint accounts and took off, Tess is suspicious enough to ask best friend Whitney Talbot to pose as a lure for the man, with unexpected results all around.Verdict In this novella that first appeared in serial form in the NewYork Times Magazine, Lippman provides welcome background for many of her cast members as she advances Tess and her boyfriend Crow to a new stage in their lives. Lippman's trademark crisp prose, smart plotting, and appealing protagonist—whose physical limitations here make her no less feisty and resourceful when faced with danger—make this an essential addition to a winning series.—Michele Leber, Arlington VA

Library Journal

Big changes come in small packages for a Baltimore private eye sidelined by an unplanned pregnancy.

Tess Monaghan (I'd Know You Anywhere, 2010, etc.) never anticipated being pregnant, much less being confined to bed rest by pre-eclampsia. But as she sits on her sun porch wondering whether her maternal instincts will ever kick in, her appetite for sleuthing continues full blast. She sees a young woman and a dog clad in matching fashion-forward green slickers walking in Stony Run. After several days, the woman disappears, and her abandoned Italian greyhound is leaving messes in Tess's living room. Tess traces the dog's owner, Don Epstein, who first says his wife is away on business, but later confesses that Carole just up and left him. Not that Epstein's track record with women is anything to write home about: His first wife Mary was shot in an attempted carjacking, and his second wife Annette died of a hospital-contracted staph infection. In between Mary and Annette, Epstein's girlfriend, Danielle Messinger, broke her neck falling down a flight of stairs—an accident Carole Epstein knows about full well, since Danielle was Carole's sister. With a nod to Hitchcock's Rear Window, Tess uses her confinement as an excuse to exercise her ingenuity in trying to prove that a self-proclaimed abandoned husband is really a cold-blooded killer.

Lippman's slender tale, serialized previously in theNew York Times Magazine, brings back her feisty star detective at her most belligerent, most vulnerable and perhaps most appealing.

Kirkus Reviews