Life Sentences - Large Print by Laura Lippman (Paperback)

About the Book

"From its gripping opening pages...Life Sentences may be the most absorbing, entertaining mystery published in the last year."--Boston Globe USA Today calls Laura Lippman, "A writing powerhouse," and Life Sentences powerfully confirms it. Past and present, truth and memory collide in this searing novel from a New York Times bestselling author whose novels have won virtually every major prize bestowed for crime fiction--from the Edgar(R) to the Anthony to the Agatha to the Nero Wolfe Award. As she did in her blockbuster What the Dead Know, Lippman takes a brief hiatus from her popular series character, Baltimore p.i. Tess Monaghan, to tell a riveting story of deceptions and dangerously fragile truths that People magazine says, "Succeeds brilliantly."

Book Synopsis

"From its gripping opening pages...Life Sentences may be the most absorbing, entertaining mystery published in the last year."

--Boston Globe

USA Today calls Laura Lippman, "A writing powerhouse," and Life Sentences powerfully confirms it. Past and present, truth and memory collide in this searing novel from a New York Times bestselling author whose novels have won virtually every major prize bestowed for crime fiction--from the Edgar(R) to the Anthony to the Agatha to the Nero Wolfe Award. As she did in her blockbuster What the Dead Know, Lippman takes a brief hiatus from her popular series character, Baltimore p.i. Tess Monaghan, to tell a riveting story of deceptions and dangerously fragile truths that People magazine says, "Succeeds brilliantly."

From the Back Cover

Author Cassandra Fallows has achieved remarkable success by baring her life on the page. Her two widely popular memoirs continue to sell briskly, acclaimed for their brutal, unexpurgated candor about friends, family, lovers--and herself. But now, after a singularly unsuccessful stab at fiction, Cassandra believes she may have found the story that will enable her triumphant return to nonfiction.

When Cassandra was a girl, growing up in a racially diverse middle-class neighborhood in Baltimore, her best friends were all black: elegant, privileged Donna; sharp, shrewd Tisha; wild and worldly Fatima. A fifth girl orbited their world--a shy, quiet, unobtrusive child named Calliope Jenkins--who, years later, would be accused of killing her infant son. Yet the boy's body was never found and Calliope's unrelenting silence on the subject forced a judge to jail her for contempt. For seven years, Calliope refused to speak and the court was finally forced to let her go. Cassandra believes this still unsolved real-life mystery, largely unknown outside Baltimore, could be her next bestseller.

But her homecoming and latest journey into the past will not be welcomed by everyone, especially by her former friends, who are unimpressed with Cassandra's success--and are insistent on their own version of their shared history. And by delving too deeply into Calliope's dark secrets, Cassandra may inadvertently unearth a few of her own--forcing her to reexamine the memories she holds most precious, as the stark light of truth illuminates a mother's pain, a father's betrayal . . . and what really transpired on a terrible day that changed not only a family but an entire country.

Review Quotes

"Unlike many mystery novels, What the Dead Know manages to maintain its suspense until the end... she's a graceful writer.... Truth, identity and the quintessentially American impulse toward self-reinvention are all smartly explored." - Time Out New York
This razor-sharp mystery nails Baltimore and the reader to the page... The false leads and twists and turns wind up in a surprising, satisfying finish. - Cleveland Plain Dealer
"Succeeds brilliantly... Lippman is in total command of her material, weaving strands about race, family myths and self-deception into a mystery so taut the reader is nearly afraid to keep going--and simultaneously powerless to stop. - People
"Lippman is a pro at finding fresh ways to tell compelling stories." - Orlando Sentinel
Life Sentences is an original and intricately woven whydunnit, with characters as real as the Baltimore streets they live on.With Laura Lippman's unique storytelling and love of the genre, mystery awards will surely keep pouring in. - Madison County Herald, Mississippi
"Lippman knows exactly what she's doing." - Seattle Times
"Lippman, a Baltimore native, skillfully brings the racial and economic tensions of her middle-class neighborhood to life in this poignant page-turner." - Daily News
"Theirs is a strong and vivid story, one that will intrigue many readers--especially, I suspect, women who find echoes of their own lives and friendships in this drama." - Washington Post
"Lippman . . . is an author willing to take risks in both writing an storytelling." - Publishers Weekly on Every Secret Thing
Lippman has enriched literature as a whole. - Chicago Sun-Times
"Laura Lippman has exploded the boundaries of the mystery genre to become one of the most significant social realists of our time." - Madison Smartt Bell
"Lippman takes an imaginative leap and exercises a considerable amount of narrative ingenuity. . . . Lippman pulls off something more ambitious than a high-wire act of technical virtuosity. with great thought and compassion, she uses her fractured narrative style to delve into the ways in which every serious crime tears to shreds the lives of its victims." - New York Times Book Review
"Laura Lippman's stories aren't just mysteries; they are deeply moving explorations of the human heart. She is quite simply one of the best crime novelists writing today." - Tess Gerritsen, author of THE MEPHISTO CLUB
"Lippman is a writing powerhouse." - USA Today
"Nail-biting suspense." - Booklist
"Smartly plotted and paced... Baltimore itself is the book's most compelling character, its uneasy mix of aspiration and decay perfectly suited to Lippman's ironic voice." - Publishers Weekly
"Razor-sharp." - Entertainment Weekly
"Spectacular. . . . A fast, cleverly ellusive story." - New York Times Book Review on Butchers Hill
"The best mystery writing around." - Village Voice Literary Supplement
Lippman has not only expanded the frontiers of genre fiction, she has enriched literature as a whole. - Chicago Sun-Times
Mystery fans can anticipate an engrosising series. - Publishers Weekly