Beneath the surface

There may be a little bit of Patricia Highsmith in Laura Lippman, a little bit of Ripley in Polly, the central character in Lippman's 2018 novel Sunburn.

Polly is an attractive young redhead whose exterior obscures what's underneath, sort of like a sunburn. In the opening chapters, she walks away from her husband and daughter, simply leaving them on the beach. She hides in a small town, Belleville, Del., and takes a job as a waitress.

Adam, another mysterious stranger, shows up in the same town and takes a job as cook in that same restaurant. He is actually a private detective hired to tail Polly, alias Pauline Ditmars, and find where she is hiding a substantial life insurance settlement paid to another daughter. Polly stabbed to death her abusive first husband, yet somehow still managed to both get out of prison and hide the insurance money.

Before Adam can find the money, he falls in love with Polly, and she with him. So both have secrets, although hers, it turns out, are much more complicated, more sinister than his.

Lippman's plot moves along slowly, but she continually adds new elements, new twists, that keep us hooked. She's a terrific writer of novels of this sort, and this one should not be missed.