While our pals in the States ditched the Royal Family long ago, if there were to be monarchs of modern US crime writing, Baltimore author Laura Lippman would surely be among them. After planting her flag with the terrific ‘Tess Monaghan’ series, in recent years Lippman has challenged herself with a string of diverse standalones, from the multiple historic narrators of Lady in the Lake to the claustrophobic Dream Girl.

In Prom Mom she plunges us into a slow-burn thriller that digs into a ‘whatever happened to?’ scenario. Amber Glass fears she’ll always carry her tabloid moniker like a scarlet letter; the teen who gave birth on Prom Night then allegedly killed her newborn after her date abandoned her for another girl. Baltimore’s the last place she wants to be, until circumstances draw her home and rekindle a strange connection to Joe – now a commercial developer married to a surgeon – who was Amber’s date that fateful night. As the world grappled with pandemic uncertainty, Amber and Joe cross lines.

Lippman lures readers in and takes us on a suspenseful ride that flows as smoothly as a brilliant musician performing onstage; making the difficult look deceptively easy. Prom Mom is another jewel in the crown of a modern-day Empress of the crime genre.

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Laura Lippman was a reporter for 20 years, including 12 years at The (Baltimore) Sun. She began writing novels while working fulltime and published seven books about “accidental PI” Tess Monaghan before leaving daily journalism in 2001. Her work has been awarded the Edgar ®, the Anthony, the Agatha, the Shamus, the Nero Wolfe, Gumshoe and Barry awards. She also has been nominated for other prizes in the crime fiction field, including the Hammett and the Macavity. She was the first-ever recipient of the Mayor’s Prize for Literary Excellence and the first genre writer recognized as Author of the Year by the Maryland Library Association.

Ms. Lippman grew up in Baltimore and attended city schools through ninth grade. After graduating from Wilde Lake High School in Columbia, Md., Ms. Lippman attended Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Her other newspaper jobs included the Waco Tribune-Heraldand the San Antonio Light.

Ms. Lippman returned to Baltimore in 1989 and has lived there since. She is the daughter of Theo Lippman Jr., a Sun editorial writer who retired in 1995 but continues to freelance for several newspapers, and Madeline Mabry Lippman, a former Baltimore City school librarian. Her sister, Susan, is a local bookseller.

Visit Laura Lippman’s website