In Big Trouble

Newest read: In Big Trouble by Laura Lippman. I thought it was the new one in the series but it was actually out of sequence (see list below) - that explains some of the disconnect I felt. Really I think Laura should stay in Baltimore. She makes Baltimore pretty real in Charm City, Baltimore Blues, Sugar House and the like but her take on San Antonio is pretty bland and seemed kind of pseudo. I've got to admit I've been to Baltimore and have lived in run-down edgy northeastern cities all my life so such places hold more meaning for me than the places of Texas and New Mexico and the like. I like her Tess Monaghan series pretty well and some of her books are pretty good. In some ways I just can't really believe in Tess, her success or lack of as a PI, Tyner, Aunt Kitty and especially Crow. And Laura looks pretty smug on her cover pic. I tried and couldn't read her non-series books: Hardly Knew Her and Life Sentences. Here is her list of books:

Baltimore Blues
Charm City
Butchers Hill
In Big Trouble
The Sugar House
In a Strange City
The Last Place
Every Secret Thing
Like A Charm
By A Spider's Thread
To The Power of Three
Baltimore Noir
No Good Deeds
What the Dead Know
Another Thing to Fall
Hardly Knew Her
Life Sentences


More of my favorites or ones I will definitely read more of: Janet Evanovich (yes she HAS been to Trenton), David Liss, Maan Meyers, Annette Meyers, Tony Hillerman, Sharyn McCrumb, Walter Mosley, and Laurie King (that is her Mary Russell mysteries) in my list of favorites. More on them later I hope... In addition I should talk about why I didn't like the recent books written by Sue Grafton and Patricia Cornwall.