Wilde Lake

I think it is well established that I adore series.  I started the Tess Monaghan series when I was pregnant and basically caught up on the series within the first few months of my daughters life.  It started my love of Laura Lippman.  I've read a few of her stand alone novels, but the Tess series has been my favorite work by her.  Wilde Lake will now be my second favorite.

About Wilde Lake

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (February 14, 2017)

An African-American man accused of rape by a humiliated girl.  A vengeful father.  A courageous attorney.  A worshipful daughter.  Think you know this story?  Think again. 

Laura Lippman, the “extravagantly gifted” (Chicago Tribune) New York Times bestselling author, delivers “one of her best novels ” (Washington Post)—a modern twist on To Kill a Mockingbird. Scott Turow writes in the New York Times, “Wilde Lake is a real success.”

Luisa “Lu” Brant is the newly elected state’s attorney representing suburban Maryland—including the famous planned community of Columbia, created to be a utopia of racial and economic equality. Prosecuting a controversial case involving a disturbed drifter accused of beating a woman to death, the fiercely ambitious Lu is determined to avoid the traps that have destroyed other competitive, successful women. She’s going to play it smart to win this case—and win big—cementing her political future.

But her intensive preparation for trial unexpectedly dredges up painful recollections of another crime—the night when her brother, AJ, saved his best friend at the cost of another man’s life. Only eighteen, AJ was cleared by a grand jury. Justice was done. Or was it? Did the events of 1980 happen as she remembers them? She was only a child then. What details didn’t she know?

As she plunges deeper into the past, Lu is forced to face a troubling reality. The legal system, the bedrock of her entire life, does not have all the answers. But what happens when she realizes that, for the first time, she doesn’t want to know the whole truth?

Another thing this book has is flashbacks.  Lu is our narrator and she goes from 2015 and her first days on the job as a state attorney and her childhood.  Each trip back to childhood gives the reader more insight into this calm collected private grown woman.  Per my usual, I adore the parts where she goes back slightly more than present day.

One of my favorite parts of reading a Lippman book is the bonus Maryland history lesson you get as you read it.  As someone who has never been to Maryland, I feel like throughout my years of reading her book I've learned bits and pieces of its history and it sure has made me more interested in Baltimore than I ever was pre-Tess Monaghan series reading!

This is a book that sucks you in as you learn more about the family dynamic of the eccentric Brant family and the legal cases that ensnare the lawyers of the family. 

If you haven't picked up a Lippman novel before or you are a fan of the Tess Monaghan series, definitely try this one! Like I said, it's probably my favorite standalone by her that I've read yet.  She is a masterful crime/mystery writer.

Have you read any books by Laura Lippman? Have you been to Maryland? Do you work in the same field as a parent?

If you would like to check out the book you can purchase it from HarperCollins!

Thanks to TLC book tours for sending me this book for review.  All thoughts and opinions are my own!