Two standalone novels by Laura Lippman, creator or the Tess Monaghan series, have made headlines this month. Lippman’s newest novel, I'd Know You Anywhere, was released on August 17, 2010 to widespread critical acclaim. Meanwhile, Lippman’s earlier work, Every Secret Thing (2003), edged closer to a movie debut.
In I'd Know You Anywhere, a letter from death row inmate Walter Bowman, who kidnapped Eliza Benedict when she was 15, causes the now 38-year-old wife and mother of two to revisit her past – and possibly her kidnapper as well. In his letter, Bowman, just weeks away from his scheduled execution, tells Eliza he needs to see her to apologize for his actions. Those actions include the murder of another of his captives, young Holly Tackett, which Eliza witnessed.
Patrick Anderson’s August 16, 2010 Washington Post review compares I'd Know You Anywhere to Lippman’s What the Dead Know (2007), two books which involve women who have been abducted. Anderson’s praise is unstinting. “I've read hundreds of thrillers in the past 10 years, and some have been excellent, but only a handful – thanks to their insights, their characterizations and the quality of their writing – could equal the best of today's literary fiction,” he says. “Those few certainly include "What the Dead Know" and "I'd Know You Anywhere."
Actress Frances McDormand (Burn After Reading, Fargo) has acquired the film rights to produce Lippman’s first standalone novel, Every Secret Thing. This 2003 work focuses on two 18-year-old girls, Alice Manning and Ronnie Fuller, who, seven years earlier, had been found guilty of the murder of a baby girl. Detective Nancy Porter, who solved that case, now must find the sister of the child Alice and Ronnie killed, who disappears soon after they are released from prison. An August 10, 2010 article in Deadline New York reported that actor Diane Lane (Killshot, Must Love Dogs) has been attached to portray detective Nancy Porter in the film.
Readers of Lippman’s Tess Monaghan series have also received good news this month. The Baltimore Sun notes that The Girl in the Green Raincoat, which Lippman first published as installments in the New York Times Magazine in 2008, will be released as a trade paperback on January 18, 2011.
The novel features a pregnant Tess who is forced to undergo bed rest. Here is how it begins:
"I’m being held hostage,” Tess Monaghan whispered into her iPhone to her friend Whitney. “By a terrorist. The agenda is unclear, the demands vague, but she’s prepared to hold me here for at least 12 weeks. Twelve weeks or 18 years, depending on how you look at it.”
“Nice way to talk about our future child,” said her boyfriend, Crow, as he tucked a quilt around her . . .”
Since over two years have elapsed since the last Tess Monaghan book, Another Thing to Fall (2008), this work is guaranteed an eager audience.
For More Information:
Laura Lippman to be 2010 president of Mystery Writers of America
Ostar Enterprises acquires television option for Laura Lippman's Tess Monaghan series
Laura Lippman's 'Life Sentences' demonstrates the division between mystery and literary fiction
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