In Big Trouble

Edgar Award-winning author Laura Lippman has created a winning character in Baltimore-based P.I. Tess Monaghan. This time Tess, a smart-mouthed, uninhibited woman with a taste for pleasure, leaves her familiar Baltimore backdrop and heads to the Lone Star State, where her former boyfriend, a musician, has disappeared. Without her usual support system in place, Tess makes some quirky new friends, notably her Vietnamese landlady, who's addicted to Spanish soaps, and Hispanic lawyer Rick Trejo. Deborah Hazlett's reading is just right for this lighthearted fare. Her rendering of Tess is upbeat, and the stereotypical Asian accent she gives to Mrs. Nguyen works for her ditzy character. Because this is not Lippman's best Monaghan adventure, fans will appreciate Tess's latest outing but may be happier once she's back in Baltimore. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

August 30, 1999
When Baltimore PI Tess Monaghan receives an envelope postmarked Boerne, Tex., containing a photo of Crow, her former musician boyfriend, and a scrap of newspaper headline reading "in big trouble," a day's outing to visit Crow's parents in Charlottesville, Tex., turns into a road trip to unknown territory. Tough and street savvy in her hometown, the former reporter feels lost in the land of the Alamo. Crow seems to have disappeared with a mysterious blonde singer, and as Tess searches for them, she encounters a wall of family secrets behind which may lie the reason for the body count rising around her. Lippman's (Charm City) colorful characters--especially the proprietor of Tess's temporary no-tell motel, and homicide detective Al Guzman--add amusement to this gripping mystery.