Wilde story

Laura Lippman’s Wilde Lake (2016) is a novel that starts small and stays that way for a long time until eventually stray pieces come together in surprising ways that may leave readers gasping.

In alternating chapters Lippman tells of Lu Brant, newly elected state attorney, preparing to prosecute her first murder case and of her girlhood as the daughter of another state attorney and a brother, A.J., several years older.

The murder case seems like a slam dunk. The defendant’s DNA was found at the scene. The most interesting aspect of the case to her is that he is being defended by the man she defeated in the recent election.

As for her memories of her youth, they mostly center on her brother and his friends, one of whom, all these years later, is now her secret lover — secret because he’s married and she certainly doesn’t need a scandal.

Even though not much of note happens during most of this novel, Lippman is a skilled writer who knows how to keep her readers hooked even when the hook is small. Not until the final chapters do readers, along with Lu herself, discover how the two threads of the story — her murder case and her family history — tie together. Then a tame, if interesting story, becomes riveting.