Cold, Dark, and Distant Lady in the Lake is a mystery about a want-to-be journalist who inserts herself into murder investigations in 1960's Baltimore. Maddie Schwartz, married to Milton for 18 years and mother to 16-year-old Seth, decides she needs to do more. She makes a drastic change and leaves Milton and Seth to start over. She lucks her way into a job at a newspaper and goes to extremes to move up on the ladder. In order to succeed, she will cross boundaries and put herself into dangero...

EXCERPT: Alive, I was Cleo Sherwood. Dead, I became the Lady in the Lake, a nasty broken thing, dragged from the fountain after steeping there for months, through the cold winter, then that fitful, bratty spring, almost into summer proper. Face gone, much of my flesh gone. And no one cared until you came along, gave me that stupid nickname, began rattling doorknobs and pestering people, going places you weren't supposed to go. No one outside my family was supposed to care. I was a careless girl

Baltimore 1966 – a/k/a “The good ole days.” (For some people.)Madeline Schwartz has been a wife and mother for almost two decades when she suddenly decides to turn her back on the boring comforts of the upper middle class. It isn’t easy for a woman in her late ‘30s to start over, but she begins pulling together a new life, including a secret relationship with an African-American cop. When Maddie discovers the body of a murder victim she manages to eventually leverage that into an entry level job...

2.5 stars. A mysterious and unique story exploring a woman’s determination to break boundaries and expectations in the 1960’s.There is a lot packed into this novel! Several heavy topics are explored within this era — race, class, women’s rights, etc. I enjoyed the newsroom/reporter aspect. The mystery kept me intrigued until the end that had some interesting surprises. There are a lot of perspective changes. I appreciate how the author kept the narratives fresh and surprising, but in all honesty...

LaurA Lippman swept me away to 1960s Baltimore with this atmospheric and riveting tale. This book perfectly wove together mystery, historical fiction, and women’s fiction. maddie is a 1960s housewife who after 18 years of marriage decide she wants more to life than just being a wife. While I didn’t always agree with Maddie’s methods, I completely understood her plightt. Maddie leaves her husband finds herself a job at a newspaper and is determined to be the best reporter ever. She will do what i...

I enjoyed Laura Lippman’s first novel, Baltimore Blue. I enjoyed Laura Lippman’s second novel, Charm City, but I worried that she might become a formula novelist. You know the one whose book you could open and by the time you have finished chapter three you could predict what was going to happen and by the end of the book have your predictions affirmed.Thankfully I can say Lippman is not a “formula writer.” She is a skilled mystery writer who sets forth developed characters facing complex situat...

Unfortunately, I didn’t like this. It started off promising, the voice of the Lady in the Lake beginning the story. Then we get the voice of Maddie, the housewife who has ambitions beyond being a married woman. Then we have another voice, then another, then another, then another.....get the picture? My interest was waning. There were two murders but I couldn't have cared less about how or who or what happened. I read the whole book but I didn’t like the story nor the characters, & definitely not...

This was my first read by Laura Lippmann & my experience wasn’t the best I thought the characters were unliveable & it was too here $ there the pacing was slow & wasn’t much suspense.Maddie Schwartz was married to Milton for 18 years& had a son Seth who was 16 but she was unhappy & made a decision to leave her son with the cad of a husband Milton & start a more satisfying life , She moves to the wrong side of Baltimore.& sells her ring to get money but… guess what she joins in the investigation

I've been wanting to read a book by this author for awhile now and the synopsis for this one sounded good. so I finally took the plunge. While this book can be classified as historical fiction, it also fits in the mystery and women's fiction genres. I ended up really enjoying this novel and look forward to reading other books by Laura Lippman.It's 1966 and Madeline "Maddie" Schwartz. lives in Baltimore with her husband and teenage son. It might seem like she has it all but she wants more than ju...

4 very enthusiastic stars!!! This was my first book of Laura Lippman's and it definitely won't be my last. I can't think of anything I didn't like about this book. It's Baltimore in 1966 and Maddie Schwartz has decided she is done playing by the rules and wants to start living her life. She leaves her husband and moves to an apartment downtown. She finds herself in the middle of a police investigation and from that point on she gains a focus of what she wants to do with her life. She begins work...

Three too many POVs flying over my head and I began to confuse, a thriller story shouldn’t be told more than three sides, right? By the way did I have to trouble to connect with characters or are they really so distant, awkward, unlikable to empathize, and where are those mind bending, nerve bending thriller element, did writer save them for another book and used the leftovers for that one stars! I mostly enjoy Laura Lippman’s books and her slow burn but giving warnings that something ominous a...

4.5 stars, rounded upI’ve read almost all of Laura Lippman’s books. This one is a departure from her typical style. For starters, it takes place in the past, the sixties to be precise. It also involves a ghost. Yet, it’s still a mystery at heart. Maddie Schwatz is recently separated and looking finally to become something other than a wife and mother. Through a fluke, she finds the body of a missing 11 year old girl. Playing off that and what follows, she manages to get a job at a newspaper. As

FIVE HARD-BOILED NOIR STARSWelcome to the 60's! woo-hoo-hoo-wooooh.🎶🎵🎶GOOD MORNING, BALTIMORE!Thank GOD, this novel has restored my faith in the literary mystery thriller genre! HOORAY! As we all know by now... the 60's were a turbulent, exciting time of change in our country. Racial tensions, the feminist movement, and freedom of the press were spotlighted every night on local televisions across the nation. How sad that not much has changed some fifty years later. Okay, forget for a moment a...

The story opens in 1966, when thirty-seven year old Maddie Morgenstern Schwartz is a beautiful Jewish housewife with an attorney husband named Milton, a teenage son called Seth, and a lovely home in a toney Baltimore neighborhood. Many women of Maddie's generation would be happy with this life, but Maddie has ambitions for a career, so she moves out to follow her dreams. Living in a small apartment - and barely making ends meet - Maddie decides to report her diamond ring stolen for the insurance...

This was... not what I expected. I listened to the audiobook and there were too many perspectives for me to keep everything/everyone straight. Also there was just something about the writing style that really rubbed me wrong and tbh this clearly was just very much not for me

Favorite Quotes:It was like that first great work of art that transfixes you, that novel that stays with you the rest of your life, even if you go on to read much better ones. Within a year, she was engaged to Milton Schwartz, big and hairy and older, twenty-two to her eighteen, his first year of law school already behind him. I went to their wedding. It was like watching Alice Faye run away with King Kong.The detectives, who seemed to find everything about her mildly hilarious, had shrugged, to...

Well, this was a truly unique way to tell a mystery. Bonus: Catching me off guard with part of the conclusion? I.AM.HERE.FOR.IT. 👏 The year is 1966 in Baltimore, Maryland. Maddie Schwartz has just left her husband and her comfortable monetary life, and is starting over. After finding the body of a missing girl, Maddie decides that she should try her hand at being a reporter.The folks at the newspaper, The Star, are not as eager to help her with her new career goals, but give her a non-reporting

My first Laura Lippman review was a big success! I loved it! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Set in 1960s Baltimore, Marie Schwartz is reflecting on her once happy life as a housewife. That was only one year ago. Now she’s walked away from her marriage and is looking for true happiness.Maddie wants to make her mark, and she helps the police find a girl who was murdered, which then leads her to a job at the local newspaper. Her first story? About a missing woman whose body was found in a local lake. It turns out sh...

4.5 stars I love the 1960’s as a setting in a novel and this was no exception. It’s 1960s Baltimore, women’s roles are changing and racial tensions are high. The author nails time and place expertly and makes them come to life.Maddie Schwartz wants more than her privileged life as the housewife of a successful businessman and mother to her teenage son. She decides to leaves her family and start over. This is a risky choice for an author as it doesn’t make Maddie the most likable of characters. H...

Whew, Lady in the Lake was a dizzying ride!The basics of the plot do have a lot of potential--the "lady in the lake" and her killer have to be identified, and recently separated Maddie Schwartz is on the case. However, the rotating cast of narrators made my head spin. Nearly every minor character Maddie meets ends up narrating a chapter. These narrators are often one-dimensional, and they tend to ramble, sending the storyline off on tangents that aren't central to the narrative. It's 1966, and M...