Spring Break
Mystery novelist returns home for book tour
Issue date: 3/13/08
As apart of a 15-city tour, critically-acclaimed writer, New York Times bestseller and former Baltimore Sun reporter Laura Lippman visited the Hopkins Barnes & Noble on Tuesday to promote her new novel, Another Thing to Fall. Published this month, Lippman's narrative follows protagonist Tess Monaghan, a native of Baltimore known for her work as a private investigator. Another Thing to Fall marks the 10th installment of Lippman's crime caper series.
Before focusing on a career in writing and teaching (currently at Goucher College in Maryland), Lippman was a reporter for 20 years, 12 of which were spent at the Sun.
Having attended Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, Lippman, after a short stint writing for Texas papets, inevitably returned to Baltimore in 1989.
Lippman's first Tess Monaghan novel, Baltimore Blues (1997), won her a nomination for the prestigious Shamus Award, which is given to the best private eye-genre novel or short story of the year.
Her success as a novelist continued to earn her acclaim, most notably with the 2007 novel What the Dead Know, which was the first of her books to make the New York Times Bestseller List. In addition, she has won other numerous awards, including Author of the Year by the Maryland Library Association.
Lippman's husband is David Simon, executive producer of The Wire, and to a certain extent the narrative is influenced by her own personal life.
She said, "In a lot of ways what I did in this book would seem counterintuitive to my desire to not talk about my private or personal life, but the fact of the matter is this television show has been a part of my life..."
Lippman's novel is heavily invested in the city and the unique society which is a product of it - as similar to The Wire, Another Thing to Fall examines a facet of Baltimore life which, though fictional, is nevertheless a telling sociological portrayal with uncommon and meaningful themes.
As Lippman said, "I do love the city, and I wanted to explore that." And despite these parallels, Lippman's intentions for the novel produced an original adventure: "I didn't want to write a book about The Wire … I had to create my own television show; it had to be done with archetypal California hipster types … I needed a culture clash."
Before focusing on a career in writing and teaching (currently at Goucher College in Maryland), Lippman was a reporter for 20 years, 12 of which were spent at the Sun.
Having attended Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, Lippman, after a short stint writing for Texas papets, inevitably returned to Baltimore in 1989.
Lippman's first Tess Monaghan novel, Baltimore Blues (1997), won her a nomination for the prestigious Shamus Award, which is given to the best private eye-genre novel or short story of the year.
Her success as a novelist continued to earn her acclaim, most notably with the 2007 novel What the Dead Know, which was the first of her books to make the New York Times Bestseller List. In addition, she has won other numerous awards, including Author of the Year by the Maryland Library Association.
Lippman's husband is David Simon, executive producer of The Wire, and to a certain extent the narrative is influenced by her own personal life.
She said, "In a lot of ways what I did in this book would seem counterintuitive to my desire to not talk about my private or personal life, but the fact of the matter is this television show has been a part of my life..."
Lippman's novel is heavily invested in the city and the unique society which is a product of it - as similar to The Wire, Another Thing to Fall examines a facet of Baltimore life which, though fictional, is nevertheless a telling sociological portrayal with uncommon and meaningful themes.
As Lippman said, "I do love the city, and I wanted to explore that." And despite these parallels, Lippman's intentions for the novel produced an original adventure: "I didn't want to write a book about The Wire … I had to create my own television show; it had to be done with archetypal California hipster types … I needed a culture clash."
Be the first to comment on this story