Author Interview: Laura Lippman

Last week I reviewed by The Most Dangerous Thing by Laura Lippman. Read it here.  This week she was kind enough to answer a few of my questions.

Girls Just Reading (GJR): This novel kept me guessing until the end, how did you come up with the idea?

Laura Lippman (LL): I was thinking a lot about a classic template, one that has been used by Lois Duncan, Val McDermid and Kevin Wignall to name just three writers: A group of friends with a tragic secret. And then I began thinking about how much more interesting it would be if there were two groups with different yet overlapping secrets. Children and their parents seemed a perfect fit. If each group knew what the other group knew . . . But we often don’t. It’s funny how much parents and children can love each other, yet sometimes don’t have a clue what’s going on in each other’s heads.

GJR: I enjoyed how you bounced back in time, telling the story from all the characters’ viewpoints. Who was your favorite character to write? Why?

LL: I think it might be Go-Go, who’s on the page so fleetingly. But he became very real to me as I watched others respond to him. When I wrote the chapter about how he marched in ice skates, in that 4th of July parade, I would find myself almost miming his movements as I worked.

GJR: One of my favorite characters in the novel was Doris Halloran. Her protective relationship with Go-Go fascinated me. Another interesting aspect is how the parenting of each child varies from family to family (and even in the same family with the Hallorans). Do you think anyone was a better parent than the other was?

LL: I think each parent did his/her best, even Rita. Clem Robison is the least conflicted parent, but he also has the fewest conflicts – he has a secure job that pays him well enough so that money is not a pressing concern and he has a stay-at-home spouse.

GJR: It was nice to see a familiar pop up at the end of the novel. Did you plan that from the beginning or was it a surprise to you? What else surprised you about this novel?

LL: It was a surprise to me – I had expected that the PI would be unsavory, given the task at hand, then realized it was more interesting if a sympathetic character did a troubling thing, something that PIs have done, according to a source of mine.

GJR: If you weren’t a writer, what would you be doing?

LL: Probably social work of some sort.

GJR: What are you currently reading?

LL: The new Ann Patchett and Tomatoland. The decline of the tomato has been on my mind for a while. Seriously, it has.

GJR: Who are your favorite authors? Why?

LL: I love writers who write about writers, now that I think about it, from Maud Hart Lovelace to Philip Roth. But some of my favorite writers are my favorite people – I love the work and the person: George Pelecanos, Dennis Lehane, Alafair Burke, Mark Billingham, Ann Hood, Stewart O’Nan – really, everyone with whom I’ve taught at Eckerd College’s annual writing workshop. I admire Jennifer Weiner, who I don’t think gets her full critical due. Oh, I could go on and on and still leave out a hundred writers. I am thinking of so many I left out of this list and hoping I haven’t offended anyone. (Oh, Kate Atkinson! Lionel Shriver!)

GJR: Are you working on a new novel? If so, what is the premise?

LL: Yes. It’s the story of a single mother approaching middle age, unsure of her job, unsure of what she’ll do if she leaves her current job, trying to maintain an uneasy truce with the father of her child, worrying about the costs of the small business she runs, a woman whose lifestyle has left her lonely, with very few friends – an everywoman who happens to be a madame/prostitute, whose life might be in jeopardy because of things she did long ago.

GJR: What do you like to do when you are not writing? Do you take time off between novels?

LL: I love exercising, cooking, going to theater, eating, reading. And I love traveling with my husband, who is a very satisfactory travel companion, adventurous and spontaneous.

GJR: Something different: Where are your favorite spots to eat blue crab in Maryland?

LL: It’s actually in Delaware, where my parents now live. My father used to put out crab pots in the Little Assawoman Bay and knowing that he had caught dinner made it that much better.

Thank you Ms. Lippman for the great interview.

Giveaway Winners: The Most Dangerous Thing

Congratulations to Tiffany and Shannon for winning a copy of The Most Dangerous Thing by Laura Lippman.

 Alice has sent you an email; please respond with your mailing address so that we may get the novels to you.

Thanks to all of you whom participated.
Girls Just Reading uses Random.org to choose the winners.

Giveaway: The Most Dangerous Thing

We have two copies of Laura Lippman's newest suspense novel The Most Dangerous Thing available for a couple of winners.

Please be a resident of the US and fill out the form below before midnight EST on August 24, 2011.

Good Luck!

Alice's Review: The Most Dangerous Thing

Summary:  Some secrets can’t be kept…

Years ago, they were all the best of friends. But as time passed and circumstances changed, they grew apart, became adults with families of their own, and began to forget about the past—and the terrible lie they all shared. But now Gordon, the youngest and wildest of the five, has died and the others are thrown together for the first time in years.

And then the revelations start.

Could their long-ago lie be the reason for their troubles today? Is it more dangerous to admit to what they’ve done or is it the strain of keeping the secret that is beginning to wear on them and everyone close to them? Each one of these old friends has to wonder if their secret has been discovered—and if someone within the circle is out to destroy them. ~amazon.com

Review:  I am relatively new to the mystery genre. I have read them in the past, but mostly because the mystery was a by product of a romance I was wrapped up in. Very few times have I picked up a novel because I wanted to play detective and figure out the whodunit. The Most Dangerous Thing wasn’t so much a whodunit as a shocking conclusion to a disturbing occurrence. I was completely involved in this story. I wanted to know what happened that caused the unlikely friendship between five souls to fall so beautifully and tragically apart.

As a mystery, I was held in suspense throughout the most of the novel. Ms. Lippman gave snippets of information, clues revealed through the past and present by several characters, but ultimately she left the big “Holy Chicken!” moment for the end. I have to admit I was thinking of rating this novel lower, mainly because of the disturbing nature at the core of the mystery. Then I realized how brilliant Ms. Lippman truly is. I didn’t suspect that finish at all. I appreciated that she made her villain flawed, truly unsuspecting much like the other characters on the novel.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed the mystery, I was underwhelmed by a couple of the characters, particularly Tally Robison. I think Tally would have made a fascinating character in her own novel but much of her story and motivation gets lost in this one. I really didn’t see the point in revealing so many details of her past; it added nothing to the story.

A character I really enjoyed getting to know was Doris Halloran. She had a touch of creepy about her. She’s sensitive, slightly delusional, a bit vindictive. Overall, I think she was plain ol’ misunderstood.

There were a couple of big surprised in the novel that has nothing to do with the mystery but with Ms. Lippman’s literary prowess. There is a bit in the book when Doris tells of reading and loneliness. She is only twenty pages from the end of a novel she’s reading, but puts it down because she hates going to bed with a book finished. Mainly because…
“It’s a little less lonely, knowing she has a group of people waiting for her in the morning, people who can’t go on unless she opens the book.”

Ms. Lippman also writes about forgiveness.
“Allowing one’s self to be forgiven is just as hard as forgiving. Harder in some ways. Because to be forgiven, one first has to admit to being at fault.”

That my friends, is some good chicken. And the main reason why I read.

This novel has made me a Laura Lippman fan. I have I’d Know You Anywhere in my TRB pile and frankly, I can’t wait to dig into that one.

Final Take:  4/5

The Most Dangerous Thing is available for purchase on August 23, 2011.

And The Winner Is...

Congratulations to JHS who won the giveaway copy of  The Girl in the Green Raincoat: A Tess Monaghan Novel. Alice has emailed you directly, so please send her your address so we can get you the book as soon as possible.

As always, GJR uses Random.org to produce the winner.

Giveaway: The Girl in the Green Raincoat

We are pleased to have one copy of Laura Lippman's The Girl in the Green Raincoat: A Tess Monaghan Novel for giveaway.

Please complete the form below no later than Midnight EST on June 30th.  This giveaway is open to US and Canada residence only.

As always, Girls Just Reading uses Random.org to choose are winner.

Good luck!

Alice's Review: The Girl in the Green Raincoat

Summary: 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.

Review: I'm pretty sure I found a new literary friend. She has moxie, a good sense a humor, animals love her, and trouble finds her wherever she goes, even when she is bedridden with a high risk pregnancy. Her name is Tess Monaghan and she is one of Baltimore's finest private detectives.

I found Tess engaging. I was definitely interested in getting to know her, to find out what path she took that lead her to become a private investigator. I enjoyed the zany cast of characters with my favorite being Mrs. Blossom, the unassuming, knitting master spy. I lost count of how many times I burst out laughing during this novella. Ms. Lippman has a great writing style, direct without being pedestrian.

There were two facets I found troubling. The first was that although I had a Why the face? moment, the ending seemed rushed. I really dislike when that happens. The second was, coming into an already established story, she left me feeling a bit like an outsider looking in on family and friends that held a tight bond. However she did succeed in peaking my interest. And now that my appetite is whet, I really have no choice but to start at the beginning and find out more about my new friend Tess and her family and kooky friends.

Final Take: 4/5