Lippman's lady

Laura Lippman says in an author's note that she did not intend Lady in the Lake (2019) to be a newspaper novel, but sometimes you really do write what you know, even if you are an experienced novelist. And Lippman was a newspaper reporter in Baltimore before she became a bestselling author, so she knows the territory very well.

Lady in the Lake may be one of the best and most unusual murder mysteries you will find — unusual because virtually every character, no matter how insignificant, becomes one of the many narrators. Yet always at the center of the story is Maddie Schwartz, a beautiful 37-year-old Jewish housewife who feels her life rushing by,  leaving all her potential behind her. Potential for what, exactly, she doesn't know because she has no obvious talent, other than wrapping most men around her finger. But she decides to leave her wealthy husband — and her teenage son — and strike out on her own.

The novel, set in 1966, has two murders that are unrelated except that they both happen in Baltimore and both draw Maddie to them. She finds the body of girl, then provides evidence leading to the murderer. And this she turns into a low-level newsroom position at a Baltimore paper. Struggling to become an actual reporter, she begins investigating another murder that nobody else either at the newspaper or the police department seems to care about.

That's because Cleo Sherwood, called "the lady in the lake," was black. But Maddie does care, partly because she hopes the story will launch her career but also because of a hot affair she is having with a black police officer, Ferdie. At that time in Baltimore black officers, like women approaching middle age working for newspapers, have little chance of advancement. They aren't even trusted with patrol cars. Yet Ferdie learns things that provide valuable tips for Maddie. The rest of her success depends on her own gumption and her refusal to take no for an answer.

The novel describes how an amateur reporter solves two murders without even trying — she's after stories, not killers — yet in Lippman's hands this hardly seems unlikely at all. It is, in fact, highly entertaining. The final reveal, however, does seem like a stretch, not that it will spoil the reader's enjoyment.