Review: I'd Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman

This is a library book that I picked up because I like the author, but it was different than her books I had read earlier, a stand-alone.

Normally I don't notice cover art very much, but this time it grabbed me. At top is a girl in a blue coat running through tall brush; at bottom is the negative image of that scene with the girl's dark hair turned white and her coat turned red. It looks like she is disappearing into the unknown. Between the cover art and the story, this book got under my skin and was disturbing. I say that despite the fact that the villain in the story is from the outset on death row where he has been for two decades as his lawyer managed delay after delay. Soon however he will be executed, but he has one last request.

Walter Bowman had kidnapped and murdered four teenage girls but a fifth girl, Elizabeth Lerner, he had held hostage for nearly six weeks and then he was arrested and she was saved. Now Eliza Benedict, married and the mother of two young children, she has managed to create a normal happy life with an understanding man who has always known about her past. Then one day she receives a letter from Walter. He says he saw her picture in a magazine that was taken at a party she attended with her prominent husband. He writes, "I'd know you anywhere."

Of course this is a terrible bolt out of the blue, bringing all the horrible memories crashing back down upon her head. Walter wants to talk to her, and after talking it over with her husband, she decides to accept a phone call from him. There is a woman who intercedes for Walter. She is an advocate for abolishing the death penalty. Particularly interested in Walter's case, she actually contacts Eliza. Another character playing a role in the story is the mother of the final victim who would like nothing more than to see Eliza dead and her own daughter alive. She is obsessed with the execution.

Through flashbacks we learn some of the details of those weeks she was Walter's hostage. My nerves were on edge; I actually kept telling myself it was just fiction. The tension builds right up to the end as you see Walter's real agenda and everyone else's as well. This is one of those stories you have to finish because you are on tenterhooks until you find out how it ends. I do recommend it.

Oh No, Sue Grafton is Getting to the End of the Alphabet!

Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone is a character that I feel like I actually know. I've read all of her alphabet series except for "T" so when I saw "U" at a book sale, I grabbed it - right out from under the nose of my friend who is also a Grafton fan. Of course, now that I've read it, I'll give it to her.

U is for Undertow is a little different than the rest. At first it's confusing to say the least. We're introduced to a family, then someone else, then someone else, and we can't see how all these people could possibly interconnect. From there the story gets more and more mystifying until slowly, gradually we begin to realize, son of a gun, these people are all somewhat involved in the same crime - some victims, some innocent bystanders, some bad guys - and it's a lot of fun figuring how just how this is all sorted out.

As usual Kinsey meets an assortment of almost recognizable characters, people like you run into in your own town. I think that's why I'm so comfortable with this series. Hardly anyone is really outlandish; they're people you can relate to or at least are a little familiar. My favorites, and probably yours too, are her landlord Henry who is now (1988) in his late 80s and Rosie the Hungarian restaurant owner who tells Kinsey what to eat. Although Kinsey is such a loner, I don't know what she'd do without Henry and Rosie.

Kinsey also learns more about her family in this book. Since she never knew she had family until four years earlier and is not at all sure she wants to know about them, this presents the usual trauma.

Since the story is set in 1988, Kinsey does her research in the library and by knocking on doors, and people aren't carrying cell phones and laptops. I like that facet of these stories. She is an old-fashioned detective which makes her work a little more instinctive and more difficult. She uses her people skills to the max digging up a cold case.

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