Laura Lippman Authors New Book Life Sentences
Cassandra Fallows Departs From Acclaimed Tess Monaghan Series
Laura Lippman’s protagonist, Cassandra Fallows, on page one of her new novel, Life Sentences (published by William Morrow) is bemoaning the low attendance at a reading in a San Francisco bookstore on Valentine’s Day. Upcoming readings include June 23 at the Howard County Poetry & Literature Society in Columbia, Maryland and July 9 at A Likely Story Books in Sykesville, Maryland. For a full schedule visit the publishers website.
Escapism Through Books
Timing is everything and a novel about an author writing memoirs gels well with real-life readers voracious consumption of the genre which chronicles the lives of the fortunate, the misery-laden, criminally inclined, romantically challenged, serial entrepreneurs, sexual assault, fallen athletes and incest survivors along with the average person.
Today people crave escape from the financial ruins of the United States and the world beyond and memoir, a story of veracity, affords the reader several emotions. First and foremost an empathy with the person because they are real; secondly the relief that someone else’s life is worse and lastly because a real-life story garners media attention beyond that of a novel – particularly if the author is “outted” for tampering with the truth.
Author Character as Detective
Back to Life Sentences… Cassandra has successfully published two memoirs one about her father and the other about her husband. Both earned acclaim and brisk sales. As the character states, “she could quit now, never write another word again, and live quite comfortably.” She tries her hand at a novel that receives a modicum of success among readers but a thrashing by the critics.
Faced with writer’s block from her attempt at fiction, Cassandra searches for a non-fiction topic to resurrect her career. Upon hearing a newscast likening a current crime to the case of Calliope, a former schoolmate, Cassandra decamps from New York for Baltimore (Lippman’s hometown) to research the crime and the reasons why Calliope went to prison rather than explain the motives behind the murder of her 3-month old son. Twenty years has passed since the murder and this trip brings Cassandra face-to-face with childhood friends and family lies.
A hallmark of Lippman’s writing is her psychological insight into her characters and their behavior that she easily translates to the page. Life Sentences is a completely fulfilling story that plumbs the depths of friendship, passion, racial tensions and the wavering line between memory and delusionary make believe.
Tess Monaghan Series
Ms. Lippman is best known for her award-winning Tess Monaghan crime series and her serial, The Girl in the Green Raincoat, which appeared in the Sunday New York Times magazine section. In 2007, Lippman’s What the Dead Know topped many best-seller lists including that of The New York Times and brought her the Quill Award for Best Mystery. In 2008 she expanded her repertoire into short stories with the publication of Hardly Knew Her. Previously, Ms. Lippman spent a dozen years as a newspaper reporter, the last half as a feature writer at The Baltimore Sun.
Laura Lippman
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Laura Lippman
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