or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
178 used & new from £0.01
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Baltimore Blues (Tess Monaghan Investigation)
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book

Baltimore Blues (Tess Monaghan Investigation) (Paperback)

by Laura Lippman (Author) "On the last night of August, Tess Monaghan went to the drugstore and bought a composition book - one with a black-and-white marble cover ..." (more)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
Price: £5.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Only 2 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

Want guaranteed delivery by Wednesday, November 11? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
25 new from £0.01 151 used from £0.01 2 collectible from £0.01
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover 4 used & new from £15.22
Paperback Order it used
Mass Market Paperback £4.85 £4.85 32 used & new from £0.01
Perfect Paperback Order it used
MP3 CD Order it used

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Butchers Hill (Tess Monaghan Investigation) by Laura Lippman

Baltimore Blues (Tess Monaghan Investigation) + Butchers Hill (Tess Monaghan Investigation)
Price For Both: £11.48

Show availability and shipping details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Charm City (Tess Monaghan Investigation)

Charm City (Tess Monaghan Investigation)

by Laura Lippman
4.1 out of 5 stars (14) 
Butchers Hill (Tess Monaghan Investigation)

Butchers Hill (Tess Monaghan Investigation)

by Laura Lippman
4.6 out of 5 stars (7)  £5.49
In Big Trouble (A Tess Monaghan Investigation)

In Big Trouble (A Tess Monaghan Investigation)

by Laura Lippman
£5.49
By A Spider's Thread

By A Spider's Thread

by Laura Lippman
4.3 out of 5 stars (3)  £5.49
What The Dead Know

What The Dead Know

by Laura Lippman
4.0 out of 5 stars (5) 
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Orion (2 Nov 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 075283763X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0752837635
  • Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 11 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 288,427 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Product Description

Until her newspaper, The Baltimore Star, crashed, Tess Monaghan was a first-rate reporter who knew her home town intimately - from historic Fort McHenry to the crumbling projects of Cherry Hill. Now gainfully unemployed at 29 she's willing to do any freelance job to pay the rent - including a bit of unorthodox snooping for her rowing buddy Darryl 'Rock' Paxton. In a city where someone is murdered almost every day, attorney Michael Abramowitz's death should be just another statistic. But the lawyer's notoriety, and his trysts with Rock's fiancee, make the case front page news - and make Rock the chief suspect ...


From the Author

Baltimore Blues: Baltimore's first mystery series?
How is it that Baltimore, which plays host to the NBC show "Homicide," did not have its own mystery series until now? (It has had, however, the 43 Light Street, the romance suspense novels published by Harlequin, and its share of one-time appearances in thrillers.) I don't know. But even if there had been a dozen Baltimore-based books, I would have set my debut here. Baltimore is what I know and what I love. Troubling, tormenting and strangely beautiful. I have lived here, on and off, for 30 years. Unlike my character, Tess Monaghan, I've managed to hold onto my job at the only newspaper in town. But stay tuned. That could change after the next book, "Charm City," comes out next fall. It's about a one-newspaper town, a retired racing greyhound and a story that's too hot not to cool down. And now a bit of Baltimore trivia: Even when H.L. Mencken had New York jobs, such as editing the American Mercury, he kept his home in Baltimore. He always said he couldn't imagine a better place to live. Who am I to argue? Laura Lippman, jroll@erols.com --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Product Description
Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
On the last night of August, Tess Monaghan went to the drugstore and bought a composition book - one with a black-and-white marble cover. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(1)
(1)
(1)
See all 5 tags...

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Baltimore Blues (Tess Monaghan Investigation)
83% buy the item featured on this page:
Baltimore Blues (Tess Monaghan Investigation) 4.1 out of 5 stars (9)
£5.99
Butchers Hill (Tess Monaghan Investigation)
8% buy
Butchers Hill (Tess Monaghan Investigation) 4.6 out of 5 stars (7)
£5.49
In Big Trouble (A Tess Monaghan Investigation)
4% buy
In Big Trouble (A Tess Monaghan Investigation)
£5.49
The Power Of Three
3% buy
The Power Of Three
£6.29
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

9 Reviews
5 star:
 (4)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (3)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Flawed but Readable Series Debut, 29 Jan 2008
By A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
I have to admit that I don't read very many American mystery/crime writers, and those I do tend to be overwhelmingly male (my two favorites are probably George Pelecanos and Elmore Leonard, just to give you a sense of my taste). And when I have sampled female-written series (Patricia Cornwell and Janet Evanovich are the two that spring to mind), they have utterly failed to connect with me. Nonetheless, Lippman's Tess Monaghan series came highly recommended to me, and the nearby Baltimore setting was a big draw.

This first in the series finds heroine Tess teetering on the brink of 30, and somewhat adrift following the closing down of the newspaper she worked at. She lives in a cheap apartment above her aunt's bookstore, and barely makes ends meet working as a clerk in the store and doing an odd job for an uncle. Her personal life is equally in flux, as she doesn't exactly have a slew of friends, and her love life is vacant, save for the random booty-call by her ex-boyfriend who cheats on his current girlfriend with Tess. The one constant in her life is a daily crack-of-dawn appointment with her racing shell and the Patapsco river.

This daily exercise has led to a friendship with another avid rower, Darryl Paxton. One day he hires her to check up on the activities of his type-A fiancee, and thus Tess embarks on her first session of amateur sleuthing. However, what starts as a fairly simple tailing job turns into a high profile murder case, as the fiancee's high-profile boss at a prestigious law firm has his head bashed in. Darryl is charged with the murder, and Tess is put to work by his defense lawyer as a gopher/investigator. Of course, when a lawyer is killed, one has to start digging into his past cases and soon Tess is following all kinds of threads in an attempt to clear Darryl.

The book definitely feels like a debut -- it starts sluggishly and takes far too long to pick up speed, as Lippman struggles with pacing. Many of the supporting cast are archetypes (the brassy aunt, the ambitious journalist, the patrician lawyer, the breezily confidant best friend) rather than full-figured characters, and few are colorful or engaging enough to want to spend more time with. Tess herself is somewhat generically flawed and feisty character, rather more clueless and prone to blundering than seems reasonable. However one can see glimmers of what could become a rich series character with further development.

The writing is also uneven when it comes to the various relationships. For example, Tess and Rock's easy friendship is handled quite well, however her reaction to the killing of someone close to her doesn't seem to distress her nearly as much as one might expect. The plotting is also somewhat uneven, as at times the reader will be three steps ahead of Tess and grow weary of waiting for the amateur to catch up, while near the end, events start to unfold much more rapidly and with more surprises. Many reviewers have lauded the Baltimore setting as amazing, and while I found the details all quite accurate, they never felt like much more than deliberate local color. Of course, I'm fairly familiar with Baltimore, so perhaps it's all a little more fascinating for others. In any event, it's not a great debut, but not a bad one either, and I'll probably read the next two to see if it gets better.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars You'll love her brave, spunky, flawed heroine., 5 April 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: Baltimore Blues (Tess Monaghan Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)
If you like a mystery with an intriguing protagonist, read Laura Lippman. Her heroine is deliciously flawed, smart, unself-aware, brave and fun, and comes surrounded by an ensemble of equally interesting pals, relatives and enemies. What is the book about? Rowing and rivalry and rage. About ability and disability and personal bests. About the poison of secrets. The real star of the book, though, is Baltimore. The book has such a strong and varied sense of place that I can't wait to go there, and I know that when I arrive, it will seem like an old friend. I'll read anything Laura will write, and only regret she doesn't publish two books a year.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars A good read but not memorable, 6 Dec 2002
By A Customer
Tess Monaghan is a well developed character and an unlikely Private Investigator. Baltimore is an unusual setting but unfortunately, the book comes over a bit like an episode of one of those American TV crime series which used to be on in the seventies, with fairly stereotypical lawyers, journalists and wealthy people. Tess's hobby, rowing, makes an interesting variation on the theme and the writing in efficient.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Don't bother ..
Like a previous reviewer, I'm a big fan of Elmore Leonard and George P Pelecanos .. their dialogue is sharp, witty and most importantly realistic. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Bettylou

5.0 out of 5 stars A cool thriller with a Baltimore Inner Harbor setting.
Ms. Lippman writes some of the most intelligent, funny, strong characters I've read in a long time. The Baltimore setting makes her books a nice answer to her competitor, Lisa... Read more
Published on 20 April 1999

4.0 out of 5 stars Ex-Baltimore reporter,Tess Monaghan, solves strange murder
Baltimore lives in the capable hands of this author. Another in her fine series about a budding P.I. Read more
Published on 9 Mar 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars Ms. Lippman excutes a perfect 10 in her Baltimore thriller
Laura Lippman is truly a great writer and seems to love Baltimore as shown by her Baltimore Blues. If you read this you will understand many of the unknown facets of Baltimore... Read more
Published on 20 Jan 1999

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid writing.
Laura Lippman has an excellent feel for the city of Baltimore and her character Tess Monahgan. I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Read more
Published on 19 Dec 1998

5.0 out of 5 stars Abrilliant debut and the start of a great series
---- BALTIMORE BLUES Laura Lippman Avon, Feb 1997, $5.99, 290 pp.
Published on 27 Jan 1997

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject













i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.