Lady in the Lake

NOW A SERIES FROM APPLE TV! A New York Times Bestseller The revered New York Times bestselling author returns with a novel set in
1960s Baltimore that combines modern psychological insights with elements of
classic noir, about a middle-aged housewife turned aspiring reporter who
pursues the murder of a forgotten young woman. In 1966, Baltimore is a city of
secrets that everyone seems to know—everyone, that is, except Madeline “Maddie”
Schwartz. Last year, she was a happy, even pampered housewife. This year, she’s
bolted from her marriage of almost twenty years, determined to make good on her
youthful ambitions to live a passionate, meaningful life.
Maddie wants to matter, to
leave her mark on a swiftly changing world. Drawing on her own secrets, she
helps Baltimore police find a murdered girl—assistance that leads to a job at
the city’s afternoon newspaper, the Star. Working at the
newspaper offers Maddie the opportunity to make her name, and she has found
just the story to do it: Cleo Sherwood, a missing woman whose body was
discovered in the fountain of a city park lake.
If
Cleo were white, every reporter in Baltimore would be clamoring to tell her
story. Instead, her mysterious death receives only cursory mention in the daily
newspapers, and no one cares when Maddie starts poking around in a young Black woman's
life—except for Cleo's ghost, who is
determined to keep her secrets and her dignity. Cleo scolds the ambitious
Maddie: You're interested in my death, not my life. They're not the
same thing.
Maddie’s investigation brings her into contact with people that
used to be on the periphery of her life—a jewelry store clerk, a waitress, a
rising star on the Baltimore Orioles, a patrol cop, a hardened female reporter,
a lonely man in a movie theater. But for all her ambition and drive, Maddie
often fails to see the people right in front of her. Her inability to look
beyond her own needs will lead to tragedy and turmoil for all sorts of
people—including Ferdie, the man who shares her bed, a police officer who
is risking far more than Maddie can understand.

Since Laura Lippman’s debut, she has been recognized as a distinctive voice in mystery fiction and named one of the “essential” crime writers of the last 100 years. Stephen King called her “special, even extraordinary,” and Gillian Flynn wrote, “She is simply a brilliant novelist.” Her books have won most of the major awards in her field and been translated into more than twenty-five languages. She lives in Baltimore and New Orleans with her teenager.