Baltimore … clever murder story; br ( )

4.5 stars. Seeing Tess grow as an investigator. ( )

A great beach read. A copy of this has been floating around our house for a long time so I grabbed it for vacation. Second read of Lippman, first being one of her later books which I enjoyed.

For me, this was a tour of remembrances of Baltimore; so many nooks and corners I’d not thought of for a while, which I enjoyed.

A somewhat simple detective story. And all neatly wrapped up by the end. I liked Tess and I will likely back track at some point and read the first in the series.
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Excellent book. Really good character development and plot twists along the way keep you guessing throughout. Plus it is cool to recognize the areas in Balto from when I lived/visited there. A great read. ( )

The second Tess Monaghan mystery.

Tess is working as a PI in the office of a lawyer, Tyner Gray. Gray is also her trainer when she gets back to rowing in the summer, and a good friend. He tosses investigative jobs her way but doesn't have enough work to keep her going full time. So he's delighted when a contract job comes along.

Baltimore's only daily newspaper, the Beacon-Light ("Blight" to many) is covering the story of "Wink" Wynkowski, business tycoon, as he makes a bid to buy a basketball team and bring it to Baltimore. The city is interested in having a team and it looks like it will build a stadium for it if it happens. Citizens are divided, but it is looking like a sure thing.

Then two reporters develop a story about Wink. The story reveals some shady business practices and shaky financing, along with more personal issues. The management team says no to running the story, saying they believe at least some of the sources should be revealed. The main reporter, Tess's friend Feeney, is crying in his beer one night. So imagine her surprise when she sees the story on the front page the next day.

Tess is hired by the newspaper to investigate the end-run around the management decision. How the article actually got into the paper. She is given a small office on an upper floor, and sets off to interview everyone who could have been involved.

Meanwhile, Tess's uncle Spike has been beaten badly, is in such bad shape he is unable to explain what happened. What is clear, though, is that he wants Tess to take a rescued greyhound home with her. Reluctantly, she does. Esskay, the greyhound, is friendly but looks scraggly and very thin. Tess is not interested in having a dog but she's as compassionate as the next person and does take good care of it, with a lot of help from Crow, her bf, Kitty, her aunt, and others.

And meanwhile again, Tess finds that she is being followed, obviously, by some mean-looking men in a car. What is their interest? Does it have to do with Wink? Or the greyhound? Or something else?

Tess's relationship with Crow takes a dive when she tells him she is not ready for anything long-term. She wants to keep him at arm's length. He takes her at her word, and she starts to regret it. ( )