Laura Lippman

Baltimore private detective and new parent Tess Monaghan is plunged into a disturbing case involving murder, a manipulative mother, and a judgmental stalker that has been watching her every move.

In 1966, Baltimore is a city of secrets that everyone seems to know--everyone, that is, except Madeline "Maddie" Schwartz. Last year, she was a happy, even pampered housewife. This year, she's bolted from her marriage of almost twenty years, determined to make good on her youthful ambitions to live a passionate, meaningful life. Maddie wants to matter, to leave her mark on a swiftly changing world. Drawing on her own secrets, she helps Baltimore police...

Heloise is just another mother at school events, a lobbyist at the state capital, but at discreet hotel rooms throughout the area, she's the woman of your dreams. Heloise has believed she is safe; only now her secret life is under siege ....

"When Felix Brewer meets Bernadette "Bambi" Gottschalk at a Valentine's Dance in 1959, he charms her with wild promises, some of which he actually keeps. Thanks to his lucrative--if not all legal--businesses, she and their three little girls live in luxury. But on the Fourth of July, 1976, Bambi's comfortable world implodes when Felix, newly convicted and facing prison, mysteriously vanishes. Though Bambi has no idea where her husband--or his money--might...

Seeing an opportunity to make a name for herself, newly appointed state's attorney Luisa Brant finds her first case dredges up memories of the night her brother saved a friend's life, but at the cost of another man's life.

When Tess Monaghan literally runs into the crew of the fledgling TV series Mann of Steel while sculling, she never expects to be hired on to serve as bodyguard/babysitter to the young female lead, Selene Waites. But the company has been plagued by a series of disturbing "mishaps" lately. And the discovery of a corpse surrounded by photos of the beautiful, difficult superstar-in-the-making is causing Mann's creator and Hollywood legend, Flip Tumulty,...

A new case forces PI Tess Monaghan to confront her own past and a man she once loved, when she receives a newspaper photograph of an old boyfriend with part of the headline attached that reads: Big Trouble.

This story begins when an orthodox Jewish man, Mark Rubin, hires Tess to trace his missing wife Natalie who has disappeared with their three children, a boy on the brink of adolescence, Isaac, and younger, boy/girl twins. It transpires that Natalie has taken off with another man, Zeke. The husband Mark, who loves his wife and adores his children, especially Isaac, is devastated. At first Tess has him marked as a control freak and thinks his wife may...

A husband's secret cellphone, a father's secret past, a mother's secrets, period-easy to hide behind the veneer of ordinary housewife; these are the scenarios found in this collection. Included here is "Just One More," a previously unpublished novella about a couple whose efforts to juice up their marriage have unfortunate consequences.

Once the best of friends until a terrible secret tore them apart, a group of friends are suddenly brought back together under tragic circumstances and wonder if their long-ago lie is the reason for their troubles today and if someone is out to destroy them.