Laura Lippman Popular Books

Laura Lippman Biography & Facts

Laura Lippman (born January 31, 1959) is an American journalist and author of over 20 detective fiction novels. Life and career Lippman was born in Atlanta, Georgia and raised in Columbia, Maryland. She is the daughter of Theo Lippman, Jr., a writer at The Baltimore Sun, and Madeline Mabry Lippman, a retired school librarian for the Baltimore City Public School System. Her paternal grandfather was Jewish, and the remainder of her ancestry is Scots-Irish. Lippman was raised Presbyterian. She attended high school in Columbia, Maryland, where she was the captain of the Wilde Lake High School It's Academic team. She also participated in several dramatic productions, including Finian's Rainbow, The Lark, and Barefoot in the Park. She graduated from Wilde Lake High School in 1977.Lippman is a former reporter for the now defunct San Antonio Light and The Baltimore Sun. She is best known for writing a series of novels set in Baltimore and featuring Tess Monaghan, a reporter turned private investigator. Lippman's works have won the Agatha, Anthony, Edgar, Nero, Gumshoe and Shamus awards. What the Dead Know (2007), was the first of her books to make the New York Times Best Seller list, and was shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award. In addition to the Tess Monaghan novels, Lippman's novel Every Secret Thing was adapted into a 2014 movie starring Diane Lane. Her novel Lady in the Lake was adapted into a limited series for Apple.Lippman lives in the South Baltimore neighborhood of Federal Hill and frequently writes in the neighborhood coffee shop Spoons. In addition to writing, she teaches at Goucher College in Towson, Maryland, just outside Baltimore. In January 2007, Lippman taught at the 3rd Annual Writers in Paradise at Eckerd College. In March 2013, she was the guest of honor at Left Coast Crime. Lippman is married to David Simon, another former Baltimore Sun reporter, and creator and an executive producer of the HBO series The Wire. The character Bunk is shown to be reading one of her books, In a Strange City, in episode eight of the first season of The Wire. Lippman appeared in a scene in the first episode of the last season of The Wire as a reporter working in the Baltimore Sun newsroom.Lippman and Simon have a daughter named Georgia Ray Simon, who was born in 2010. Works Tess Monaghan series Baltimore Blues (1997). ISBN 0380788756 Charm City (1997). ISBN 0380788764 Butchers Hill (1998). ISBN 0380798468 In Big Trouble (1999). ISBN 0380798476 The Sugar House (2000). ISBN 0380978172 In a Strange City (2001). ISBN 0380978180 The Last Place (2002). ISBN 0380978199 By A Spider's Thread (2004). ISBN 0060506695 No Good Deeds (2006). ISBN 978-0060570729 Another Thing to Fall (2008). ISBN 978-0061128875 The Girl in the Green Raincoat (2011). ISBN 978-0061938368 Hush, Hush (2015). ISBN 978-0062083425Short Stories: "Orphans' Court" (1999) (short story in First Cases: Volume 3, edited by Robert J. Randisi) "Ropa Vieja" (2001) (short story in Murderers Row, edited by Otto Penzler) "The Shoeshine Man's Regrets" (2004) (short story in Murder and All That Jazz, edited by Robert J. Randisi)Standalone works Novels Every Secret Thing (2004). ISBN 0060506679 To The Power of Three (2005). ISBN 0060506725 What the Dead Know (2007). ISBN 978-0061128851 (Little Sister in the UK) Life Sentences (2009). ISBN 978-0061128899 I'd Know You Anywhere (2010). ISBN 978-0061706554 (Don't Look Back in the UK) The Most Dangerous Thing (2011). ISBN 978-0061706516 And When She Was Good (2012). ISBN 978-0061706875 After I'm Gone (2014). ISBN 978-0062083395 Wilde Lake (2016). ISBN 978-0062083456 Sunburn (2018). ISBN 978-0062389923 Lady in the Lake (2019). ISBN 978-0062390011 Dream Girl: A Novel (2021). ISBN 978-0063204652 Prom Mom (2023). ISBN 9780062998064Short story collections Baltimore Noir (2006). ISBN 978-1888451962 (editor and contributed one story) Hardly Knew Her: Stories (2008). ISBN 978-0061584992 Seasonal Work: Stories (2022). ISBN 978-0063000032Memoir Summer of Fall (2023). ISBN 978-1094455402 (Scribd original)See also Tart Noir Katy MungerReferences External links Interview with Laura Lippman in Shots Ezine, September 2012 (archived) Interview with Laura Lippman in Topic magazine, March 2019, Issue 21: Crime Laura Lippman interview in HuffPost, September 13, 2013: "How Laura Lippman Changed Paths At 42 And Became A Bestselling Author. Discover the Laura Lippman popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Laura Lippman books.

Best Seller Laura Lippman Books of 2024

  • The Cutaway synopsis, comments

    The Cutaway

    Christina Kovac

    “The Newsroom meets Gone Girl” (Cosmopolitan) in this stunning psychological thriller featuring a young television producer investigating the disappearance of a beautiful Georgetow...

  • Runner synopsis, comments

    Runner

    Tracy Clark

    “Exceptional…The action builds to an exciting showdown. Those who like their crime novels with a social conscience will be amply rewarded.” Publishers Weekly, STARRED review Former...

  • The Weaker Sex synopsis, comments

    The Weaker Sex

    Laura Lippman

    Men in Laura Lippman's haunting and suspenseful stories can be terrified witnesses, unwitting victims, or bemused perpetrators. In “Pony Girl and BlackEyed Susan”, young AfricanAme...

  • The Best American Mystery Stories 2014 synopsis, comments

    The Best American Mystery Stories 2014

    Otto Penzler

    “With so many great authors contributing to this fiction collection . . . it doesn’t take detecting skills to discover the gem. And every story dazzles . . . These stories, in pros...

  • The Last Place synopsis, comments

    The Last Place

    Laura Lippman

    When New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman’s Tess Monaghan investigates five cold case murders, she doesn’t expect the investigation to become personal…Tess Monaghan...

  • The Other Side of Everything synopsis, comments

    The Other Side of Everything

    Lauren Doyle Owens

    Laura Lippman meets Megan Abbott in this suspenseful mystery debut set in the aftermath of a violent crimefor “fans of crime fiction wanting literary flair and emotional depth” (Pu...

  • Odd Partners synopsis, comments

    Odd Partners

    Mystery Writers of America, Anne Perry, Allison Brennan, Jeffery Deaver & William Kent Krueger

    Unlikely pairs join forces to crack a slew of intriguing cases in an anthology edited by New York Times bestselling author Anne Perry, featuring original stories by Jacqueline Wins...

  • Speak of the Devil synopsis, comments

    Speak of the Devil

    Allison Leotta

    In this gripping legal thriller by “the female John Grisham” (The Providence Journal), sexcrimes prosecutor Anna Curtis must stop a vicious street gang before it destroys more live...

  • All Due Respect . . . The Sopranos Changes Everything synopsis, comments

    All Due Respect . . . The Sopranos Changes Everything

    Alan Sepinwall

    "The Sopranos is the one [show] that made the world realize something special was happening on television. It rewrote the rules and made TV a better, happier place for thinking vie...

  • Nasty Girls synopsis, comments

    Nasty Girls

    Laura Lippman

    Meet some of the most dangerous women master of psychological suspense Laura Lippman has ever created in works so dark that her husband observed that most of her short stories cent...

  • She Lies Close synopsis, comments

    She Lies Close

    Sharon Doering

    A compulsive debut thriller about motherhood, obsession and how far we’d go to protect the ones we love. "Every curve, every twist takes you further down the rabbit hole. Shar...

  • The Aran Islands synopsis, comments

    The Aran Islands

    J.M. Synge

    In 1907 J. M. Synge achieved both notoriety and lasting fame with The Playboy of the Western World. The Aran Islands, published in the same year, records his visits to the islands ...

  • Sepinwall On Mad Men and Breaking Bad synopsis, comments

    Sepinwall On Mad Men and Breaking Bad

    Alan Sepinwall

    From the updated edition of The Revolution Was Televised, Alan Sepinwall’s analysis of Breaking Bad and Mad Men, featuring new commentary and insights on the complete series and co...

  • The Revolution Was Televised synopsis, comments

    The Revolution Was Televised

    Alan Sepinwall

    A phenomenal account, newly updated, of how twelve innovative television dramas transformed the medium and the culture at large, featuring Sepinwall’s take on the finales of Mad Me...

  • The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook synopsis, comments

    The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook

    Kate White, Harlan Coben, Gillian Flynn, Mary Higgins Clark & Brad Meltzer

    Hardboiled breakfasts, thrilling entrees, cozy desserts, and morethis illustrated cookbook features more than 100 recipes from legendary mystery authors like Sue Grafton, Louise Pe...

  • Two of the Deadliest synopsis, comments

    Two of the Deadliest

    Elizabeth George

    “This brilliant anthology of short stories by some of the most outstanding women now writing mysteries and crime fiction...is a truly glorious collection”  Globe and Mail New ...

  • The Glass Forest synopsis, comments

    The Glass Forest

    Cynthia Swanson

    The lives of three very different women intersect in shocking ways in this “outstanding psychological thriller” (Library Journal, starred review), by the New York Times bestselling...

  • The Last Good Girl synopsis, comments

    The Last Good Girl

    Allison Leotta

    From Allison Leotta, the “highly entertaining storyteller” (George Pelecanos) who writes “in a style that’s as real as it gets” (USA TODAY), a rippedfromtheheadlines novel featurin...

  • Seasonal Work synopsis, comments

    Seasonal Work

    Laura Lippman

    New York Times bestseller Laura Lippman showcases why she is one of today’s top crime writers in this acclaimed collection of suspenseful stories featuring fierce womenincludi...

  • Everything You Want Me to Be synopsis, comments

    Everything You Want Me to Be

    Mindy Mejia

    Full of twists and turns, Everything You Want Me to Be reconstructs a year in the life of a dangerously mesmerizing young woman, during which a small town’s darkest secrets come to...

  • Deadly Anniversaries synopsis, comments

    Deadly Anniversaries

    Marcia Muller & Bill Pronzini

    A Best Book of 2020 from Suspense Magazine Deadly Anniversaries celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Mystery Writers of America with a collection of stories from some of the top ...

  • Blind Faith synopsis, comments

    Blind Faith

    Alicia Beckman

    Longburied secrets come back with a vengeance in a cold case gone redhot in Agatha Awardwinning author Alicia Beckman’s second novel, perfect for fans of Laura Lippman and Greer He...

  • Bad Tourists synopsis, comments

    Bad Tourists

    Caro Carver

    Three tightknit friends embark on an extravagant divorce trip to the Maldives where they can unwind and celebrate a new chapter in midlifeuntil they realize the resort of their dre...

  • Discretion synopsis, comments

    Discretion

    Allison Leotta

    For fans of Lisa Scottoline and Law and Order: SVU, former federal sexcrimes prosecutor Allison Leotta’s novel explores the intersection of sex and power as Anna Curtis investigate...

  • Goldberg Variations synopsis, comments

    Goldberg Variations

    Susan Isaacs

    From New York Times bestselling author Susan Issacs, a “deliciously wicked” (Publishers Weekly) story of three cousins and a fortune.Imagine King Lear as a comedy…At seventynine, G...

  • Dead Spider synopsis, comments

    Dead Spider

    Victoria Houston

    In the next installment of the Loon Lake Mystery series, Lewellyn Ferris and Doc Osborne must solve a murder that shatters the picturesque Wisconsin lake town community at the heig...

  • The Books That Changed My Life synopsis, comments

    The Books That Changed My Life

    Bethanne Patrick

    One hundred of today’s most prominent literary and cultural icons talk about the books that hold a special place in their heartsthat made them who they are today.Leading authors, p...

  • The Sugar House synopsis, comments

    The Sugar House

    Laura Lippman

    New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman’s Tess Monaghan must solve one of the most baffling murders in her PI career.When Tess Monaghan agrees to talk to Ruthie Dembrow, sh...

  • Twilight Zone synopsis, comments

    Twilight Zone

    Carol Serling

    An original anthology celebrating Rod Serling's landmark television seriesWhen it first aired in 1959, The Twilight Zone was nothing less than groundbreaking television. Freed from...

  • Different for Girls synopsis, comments

    Different for Girls

    Laura Lippman

    Laura Lippman has long been fascinated by the dangerous vulnerability of teenage girls. In “The Babysitter's Code”the inspiration for her critically acclaimed novel, To the Power o...

  • Prom Mom synopsis, comments

    Prom Mom

    Laura Lippman

    New York Times bestseller Laura Lippman tells the story of Amber Glass, desperately trying to get away from her tabloid past but compulsively drawn back to the city of her youth an...

  • Five Fires synopsis, comments

    Five Fires

    Laura Lippman

    Everyone in smalltown Bellville is talking about a series of mysterious fires disrupting the typically tranquil summer. The authorities attribute them to heat lightning, but some B...

  • The Favorite Sister synopsis, comments

    The Favorite Sister

    Jessica Knoll

    From the author of Luckiest Girl Alivenow a Netflix filmcomes the “engrossing” (People) New York Times bestseller starring two sisters who join the cast of a reality TV series…and ...

  • All the Pieces Matter synopsis, comments

    All the Pieces Matter

    Jonathan Abrams

    The definitive oral history of the iconic and beloved TV show The Wire, as told by the actors, writers, directors, and others involved in its creation.Since its final episode aired...

  • A Good Killing synopsis, comments

    A Good Killing

    Allison Leotta

    Former federal prosecutor and critically acclaimed author Allison Leotta’s spellbinding thriller follows prosecutor Anna Curtis as she heads home to Michigan to defend her sister i...

  • Hints of Heloise synopsis, comments

    Hints of Heloise

    Laura Lippman

    Heloise is a suburban madam who flies under the radar in her affluent Maryland community by claiming she’s a lobbyist. Featured in Laura Lippman’s novel And When She Was Good, Helo...

  • The Ten Visions synopsis, comments

    The Ten Visions

    Olivia Knight

    The moment she starts her doctorate in Oxford, Sarah is beset with mysteries. An old portrait in her rented house bears an uncanny resemblance to her.Her new lover insists he's...

  • Call Me Elizabeth Lark synopsis, comments

    Call Me Elizabeth Lark

    Melissa Colasanti

    Your daughter went missing twenty years ago. Now, she's finally back. You thought she had returned a few times in the past, and your husband tells you she's not the one, but you fe...