"Wilde Lake"

Laura Lippman was a reporter for twenty years, including twelve years at The (Baltimore) Sun. She began writing novels while working full-time 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.

Lippman grew up in Baltimore and attended city schools through ninth grade. After graduating from Wilde Lake High School in Columbia, Md., she attended Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

Lippman applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Wilde Lake, and reported the following:

The scene on page 69 of Wilde Lake is a little worker bee, something required to carry plot. The protagonist, Lu Brant, a state's prosecutor, is observing the first interrogation of a homeless man arrested for a murder. But a line at the bottom jumps out at me. Lu, noticing how the accused man whispers in the ear of his public defender, remembers how her twins "used to confide 'secrets' to her in tandem, a hot, damp mouth pressed to each ear, words tumbling out."

I've had the good fortune to work with one editor, Carrie Feron, my entire career. One of the things she requested in Wilde Lake was a little more information about Lu as a mom. Now I had very good reasons for not putting too much of Lu's family life into the novel, but when you've worked happily with someone almost 20 years, it's natural to respect that person's input. However -- tiny, subtle changes can get the job done. So instead of writing some big, seminal scene with Lu and her kids, I looked for opportunities to show how they were always on her mind.

Visit Laura Lippman's website.

--Marshal Zeringue