Hardly Knew Her: Stories - Laura Lippman

Add this one to your 'coming soon' list!Hardly Knew Her will be released by Harper Collins Canada on September 24th.

I'm a diehard fan of Laura Lippman and her Baltimore P.I. Tess Monaghan series. This collection displays a completely fresh and different side of Lippman's writing.

The stories are divided into three parts - Girls Gone Wild, Other Cities, Not My Own and My Baby Walks the Streets of Baltimore.

The first story is 'The Crack Cocaine Diet'. Two suburban girls decide that cocaine would be the best method to lose weight quickly. It starts off rather funny but where this story goes is completely unexpected.

'One True Love' is the story of a Heloise, a suburban prostitute who will do anything to keep her private and public life separated. Heloise and her sister Meghan are the subjects of the novella at the end of the book. I was captured by the character of Heloise and privately hope she pops up in future novels. I think we haven't even begun to see what she and her sister are capable of.

There are stories featuring Tess. The best is an interview of Tess Monaghan by Laura Lippman for the Baltimore Beacon-Light. Tantalizing snippets of information about Tess's life are sprinkled throughout.

Pony Girl is a truly frightening story. This story takes place in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. A young man decides he should keep his eye on two young women so they don't get hurt. What he ends up seeing....well I don't want to spoil the ending.

Oh and the one about senior citizen porn......and what to do with that cheating husband?

Lippman has written in many different voices - old, young and yes a few male protagonists- and characters as well as new locales.

Each story 'hooked' me. I never knew what to expect - each story was a guess as to where Lippman was going to go with it. All are wonderfully different but all showcase Lippman's marvelous talent as a writer. If you haven't read Lippman yet, this would be a great place to start.