HUSH HUSH: A REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

GIVEAWAY ENDED
HUSH HUSH

BY LAURA LIPPMAN
  

ABOUT THE BOOK:
The award-winning New York Times bestselling author of After I’m Gone, The Most Dangerous Thing, I’d Know You Anywhere, and What the Dead Know brings back private detective Tess Monaghan, introduced in the classic Baltimore Blues, in an absorbing mystery that plunges the new parent into a disturbing case involving murder and a manipulative mother.

On a searing August day, Melisandre Harris Dawes committed the unthinkable: she left her two-month-old daughter locked in a car while she sat nearby on the shores of the Patapsco River. Melisandre was found not guilty by reason of criminal insanity, although there was much skepticism about her mental state. Freed, she left the country, her husband and her two surviving children, determined to start over.

But now Melisandre has returned Baltimore to meet with her estranged teenage daughters and wants to film the reunion for a documentary. The problem is, she relinquished custody and her ex, now remarried, isn’t sure he approves.

Now that’s she’s a mother herself—short on time, patience—Tess Monaghan wants nothing to do with a woman crazy enough to have killed her own child. But her mentor and close friend Tyner Gray, Melisandre’s lawyer, has asked Tess and her new partner, retired Baltimore P.D. homicide detective Sandy Sanchez, to assess Melisandre’s security needs.

As a former reporter and private investigator, Tess tries to understand why other people break the rules and the law. Yet the imperious Melisandre is something far different from anyone she’s encountered. A decade ago, a judge ruled that Melisandre was beyond rational thought. But was she? Tess tries to ignore the discomfort she feels around the confident, manipulative Melisandre. But that gets tricky after Melisandre becomes a prime suspect in a murder.

Yet as her suspicions deepen, Tess realizes that just as she’s been scrutinizing Melisandre, a judgmental stalker has been watching her every move as well. . . .

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Since Laura Lippman's debut in 1997, she has won multiple awards and critical acclaim for thoughtful, timely crime novels set in her beloved hometown of Baltimore. Now a perennial New York Times bestselling author, she lives in Baltimore and New Orleans with her family.

SOME OTHER BOOKS BY LAURA LIPPMAN:

                 

                    

                         

MY THOUGHTS/REVIEW:
Laura Lippman fans rejoice! HUSH HUSH is her newest Tess Monaghan novel that readers will delight in. Tess is certainly up to her former high standards of investigative work while also dealing with her own personal problems. Tess and her partner Sandy Sanchez take on a case to provide security for Melisandre Harris Dawes. Tyner Gray, Tess’s aunt’s husband, has personally asked them to handle this one. What seems to be a fairly normal assignment, is anything but. 

The client, Melisandre Harris Dawes, is well known in Baltimore as she murdered her young daughter 12 years ago. The child was an infant and brought even more outrage from the public who followed the case. Dawes was, however, found not guilty as her defense used the insanity rule to prove their case. Leaving her two older daughters with their father, Dawes left the country and wasn’t heard from for years. To best create this part of the story, Lippman uses flashbacks as well as different narrators to tell the story. It is when Melisandre returns to Baltimore in order that she can reconnect with her daughters that the need for security becomes an issue; enter Tess and Sandy!

Alanna and Ruby, the daughters, are now teenagers and want nothing to do with their mother. As readers learn more about the girls, they become central to the story and the action going on. Dawes, a former lawyer, is able to use all the tricks in the book and that money can buy to try and get her daughters back. Just how far she will go becomes a major issue Tess has to deal with. 

Being the mother of a three-year-old daughter herself, Tess must deal with very mixed emotions about working on this case. Tess begins to investigate Melisandre’s relationships with her now divorced husband, as well as others involved with this woman. Tess finds it hard to understand how and why some of these other people are involved in this abominable case. Tess’s instincts are spot on from the beginning as this woman is obnoxious and the part she played in her baby’s death is something that is hard to put aside. When mysterious, anonymous notes begin to show up not only for Melisandre but also Tess, it is just the start of trouble. When a key character is found dead, the story takes on more twists and turns and keeps readers turning pages. 

I also found that Tess’s personal life was a major part of the story and Laura Lippman did a wonderful job of weaving it into the narration. Tess is dealing with problems many will relate to. She is trying to balance work with caring for her daughter and also her partner. The guilt of whether she is being a good parent spans the range from caring, feeding, proper play time, and all the things parents, especially working parents, deal with. I think that Tess’s love for her little one, Carla Scout, is commensurate to the rest of the story and so instills more reality into HUSH HUSH.    

I found HUSH HUSH to be a captivating read. I had no problem following the story even though I have not read earlier books in the series by Laura Lippman. I did find that the twists at the end were a bit confusing to me and I had to go back and reread a few pages just to be sure I understood what was going on. It may have had to do with my late hour reading as I just couldn’t seem to put this one down, especially as it neared the end! I am sure fans of the series will also find it riveting and new readers will as well.

GIVEAWAY

 
 THANKS TO KATHERINE AND THE FOLKS

 AT HARPER COLLINS, I HAVE  

ONE COPY OF HUSH HUSH, TO 

GIVE AWAY TO ONE LUCKY WINNER!

  

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GIVEAWAY ENDS AT

 6 PM, EST, APRIL 6

GOOD LUCK!