Rating: 
Summary: Tess Monaghan's a Winner
Review: A friend who is a reviewer thought I might like this series, and I started with the most recent. Go figure. I mistakenly thought this would be like all the other series books out there that feature young, single women who in some way or another are investigators. Lippman has a humorous style that makes the read all the more fun. I loved the Carl DeWitt character and his interactions with Tess. Laughed at the discussions Tess has with her court-ordered psychiatrist. Was a little disappointed with the boyfriend, Crow, though. But maybe he's better in the earlier books. All in all, I'm hooked!
Rating: 
Summary: A Mystery With a Mystery
Review: From the beginning page you are introduced to the killer and the knowledge that he is watching someone again stays in the front of your mind as you get to know him better. His history and his thoughts are sprinkled throughout the book and lead you to "The Last Place." Tess is a private investigator with a past that haunts her. Her ex-boyfriend was killed years prior and she continues to suffer from occasional nightmares, reliving his death. She has issues with anger management, which are portrayed quite well when she gets a little revenge on a potential child molester. She is arrested and sentenced to anger management counseling. Tess's wealthy friend, Whitney, offers her a private investigator assignment which involves reviewing old, unsolved domestic abuse murder cases in order to help bring about lobbying for funding and training for small town cops handling domestic abuse situations. Whitney is part of a group of several non profit foundations that have joined together and are in search of ways to reduce the number of domestic-violence homicides in their state. Though Tess's old archenemy, Luisa O'Neal, is somewhat involved in the group, Tess accepts the assignment with the understanding that Luisa is not an active member of the board. There is a list of five unsolved cases for Tess to investigate. She was not hired to search for the killer but rather to check into the specifics of the police investigations on each file. Initially, the cases do not seem connected but then Tess begins to question whether or not they are in some way. She always begins to wonder if Luisa O'Neal had more involvement in this project than Tess was told about, or anyone was told, for that matter. Soon Tess is questioning everything and everyone looking for the link. You will find yourself flipping back through the pages you've already read, checking details, looking for confirmation of the places the clues are leading you. Just when you think you're sure you know who the killer is, another clue is added that doesn't quite fit in and you are sent on your search again. You will be guessing until the end.
Rating:
Summary: The Last Place
Review: I love Tess. So this is going to be biassed. If you don't know Tess, the first half of the book is a very interesting description of Baltimore and its surrounds. And the people who will feature later on. It shows Tess in a way I think is unfair because it is so human. It is a newspaper or story kind of way. Given that Laura Lippman used to be a journalist that is fair enough. And a true achievement. Tess is a fictional character (not to me but I acknowlegde that this is so) and the story is fiction but it could have happened this way. If you are interested in human foibles and failures, this will slowly draw you in. If you are a Tess aficionado, you will suffer as I did.
Rating:
Summary: Best of Tess Yet
Review: I've read all but one of the Tess series and think this is the best yet. The story is engrossing; a real page turner. Lippman does an excellent job of weaving together several seemingly unrelated deaths. You have to know more about the killer which leaves you unable to put the book down
Rating:
Summary: Character, action and puzzle together
Review: It started out as a routine investigation for Baltimore private investigator Tess Monaghan. A nonprofit group hired her to look into several small-town unsolved murders as part of a study to determine whether the police had done a good job, and whether domestic violence was at the root. But soon she discovered something unexpected--a link between two of the cases, which were supposedly chosen at random. Tess meets up with an unlikely ally--a former Toll Facilities cop, Carl Dewitt, who is obsessed with one of the murders. When they compare notes, they realize they're dealing with an extraordinarily clever serial killer--and that Tess is his real target, but for an unknown reason. As Tess and Carl investigate, sometimes cooperating with the state police, sometimes defying it, they start to realize that they're following a script only the killer knows, and he's always one step ahead of them. As she struggles with the fear and the mind games, Tess is also battling her own demons, forced on her by a court-ordered anger-management psychiatrist. Author Laura Lippman's novel has that rare combination of character, action, intellectual puzzle and flashes of humor that blend for a first-rate mystery. This is not a feel-good book, though. It made me a little sad.
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing mystery
Review: Ms. Lippman's best Tess story to date. No need to rehash the plot but there are many things happening at different levels and trying to understand how they all fit together makes the book that much more interesting. One warning however, if you haven't read any of Ms. Lippman's books before, this a spoiler for an earlier book.
Rating:
Summary: Bodies and no Clue
Review: Tess Monaghan (very poor) is a private investigator who is hired by her best friend Whitney Talbot (very rich). She is asked to work for a consortium that concerns itself with domestic violence. Tess is given six names of persons who have been killed in the last six years. None of the killings were solved. Tess is to find out if law enforcement did a sloppy - and presumably prejudiced - job. So Tess goes to work, interrupting it only shortly to spend time with her boyfriend Crow. At first, nothing outrageous happens. She then teams up with retired Toll Road Police Officer Carl Dewitt. The story is interrupted occasionally by the voice of the killer. There just is no substitute for that vision thing when you want to reach conclusions that are not based on any known fact. And what is missing here is the kitchen sink. But then the author got a big medal from the mayor of Baltimore for writing so much about his city. And the perpetrator became a mass murderer because he used to love Tess Monaghan. Go figure.
Rating:
Summary: Laura Lippman soars in this brilliantly written story
Review: Tess Monaghan is in her seventh book and she's in trouble from page one --- but her creator Laura Lippman isn't. Lippman is an author in full control of her characters, her story and her craft. As a lifelong mystery-lover, I get a certain feeling when I crack open a book like this and can immediately sense that I'm in good, sure hands with the author. I relax into that fictional world and let go, secure in the knowledge that I'll be taken places I've never been before, probably wouldn't have the courage to go alone and will return enriched by the experience. THE LAST PLACE is that kind of book. So Tess gets arrested and goes before a judge. It is a kind of vigilante-justice situation, where her "victim" was more wrong than she. Still, Tess is sentenced to a six-month course in anger management with a shrink. These therapy sessions run in counterpoint to the main plot, a sort of ongoing character commentary that could easily have been overdone. A lesser author wouldn't have been able to resist. But for Lippman it's simply there, a part of this private investigator's life. For Tess, it is certainly not the most important part and insights are noted, tucked away in case they're needed later. She grows but it's no big deal --- she just keeps on keeping on. That first bad guy --- the one who managed to turn himself into a victim --- may have been merely a nuisance, but there's a real sicko out there. In fact, some of the most outstanding writing in THE LAST PLACE is in sections that show us his view of the world. It's warped but atmospheric; he's twisted, poisoned by longing --- and the object of his longing is Tess Monaghan. She will not know this until very late in the book, but we know and we fear for her. Tess has been hired by a coalition of humanitarian organizations to investigate a list of six deaths --- unsolved murders --- that are suspected to be rooted in domestic violence. All occurred not in the City of Baltimore, but in Baltimore County; all the cases are supposed to have been chosen at random by a volunteer at one of the participating organizations. Tess's job as private investigator is to go deeper into the deaths than the police in their various jurisdictions have done and to find the domestic violence link the police may have ignored. The coalition will then go to their legislators to ask for a spotlight on domestic violence and for new laws with bigger teeth. Initially, Tess is thrilled to take the case, which seems to dovetail nicely with the goals of her therapy; she thinks, "At last I'll be one of the good guys." Uh-huh. During her investigation she picks up a sidekick, a former state toll road cop who is now retired on disability and who is obsessed with solving one of the cases himself. He is a fascinating character to pair with forthright, aggressive Tess, who begins to occasionally glimpse a reason she might actually need to be in anger management. And on they go, while the sicko separately continues to tell his side of the tale, all unknown to Tess. For the reader, the suspense ratchets ever higher. While the plot expands, contracts, cracks open again and now and then doubles back on itself in convolutions only a master storyteller could handle, there are some wonderful moments where one can read for the sheer pleasure of the English language. Bearing in mind that most of the book is from Tess Monaghan's point of view and observations on the part of the author are always consistent with Tess's character, consider the economy and precision of the following: "It was the kind of fresh spring day that made everyone but T.S. Eliot feel hopeful"; "Julie was a heavy smoker. Being inside the house was like crawling into a pack of Marlboros"; "... her manner was slick as marble. Polite but hard, with nothing to grasp"; "Rationalization [is] what really separates humans from the rest of the animal kingdom. It's the opposite of Darwinism. Animals do what they have to do to survive, but it's all instinct. Humans do what they want to do, then work backward, trying to make a case for why it was essential to their survival." That's the merest sample. There's much more and it all fits within the point of view. You don't get, say, a ten year-old child-character making narrative comments in Shakespearean language -- a device that is much praised by some critics, but it doesn't sit well with me. When the language is this good and you can't guess the identity of that sicko guy with the scary yearnings no matter how often the plot turns back on itself, you have a book that ends too soon no matter how long it is. That's why I'm glad now that I somehow missed reading last year's Tess Monaghan book, IN A STRANGE PLACE, in hardcover. How could I have done that? It was a New York Times notable book-of-the-year --- shame on me. But never mind. IN A STRANGE PLACE is now out in paperback, so I'll buy it and prolong my Baltimore-based reading pleasure. That reminds me: The Mayor of Baltimore recently gave Laura Lippman the city's Award for Excellence in Literature. I expect the Mayor wanted to be sure she doesn't forget her roots, because this mystery author is poised on the edge of flight --- into the high, thin regions where bestsellers dwell. Laura Lippman is certainly going to soar. --- Reviewed by Ava Dianne Day
Rating:
Summary: Another Tess Monaghan mystery
Review: The novel starts out with an interesting prelude to the main story when Tess and her friend Whitney defoliate a would be rapist. From there the story progresses to the main plot about a serial killer with a strange compulsion. Tess and a new found associate link together a number of seemingly unrelated homicides, including a disappearance and an "accidental" death from the distant past. Details of her own past emerge, partly from discussions with a psychiatrist she is seeing as part of a plea bargain agreement. Tess still has her boyfriend, Crow, and her two dogs, but they play minor roles. She bumbles about a bit, and almost gets herself killed in the manner of independent investigators created by various authors. There are some side details of Baltimore, Maryland's eastern shore, etc., and a view of some of the sleazy underside of life.
Rating:
Summary: The Last Place is a Winning Place to Be
Review: This is wonderful PI story, that I couldn't put down. As I started to read it, I recognized many references to Baltimore Blues,the first in the Tess Monaghan series. I immediately went and reread Baltimore Blues, and was glad I did. The Last Place answers many of the questions remaining from the first book. As a mystery on its own, it is powerful and extremely well written. I do hope Laura Lippman doesn't wait too long for another installment.
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