Book Review: Sunburn by Laura Lippman

Sunburn

by Laura Lippman 

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One is playing a long game. But which one?

They meet at a local tavern in the small town of Belleville, Delaware. Polly is set on heading west. Adam says he’s also passing through.

Yet she stays and he stays—drawn to this mysterious redhead whose quiet stillness both unnerves and excites him. Over the course of a punishing summer, Polly and Adam abandon themselves to a steamy, inexorable affair. Still, each holds something back from the other—dangerous, even lethal, secrets that begin to accumulate as autumn approaches, feeding the growing doubts they conceal.

Then someone dies. Was it an accident, or part of a plan? By now, Adam and Polly are so ensnared in each other’s lives and lies that neither one knows how to get away—or even if they want to. Is their love strong enough to withstand the truth, or will it ultimately destroy them?

Something—or someone—has to give.

Which one will it be?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Men have always done things for her… It is a special art, asking people to do things, yet making it seem as if you never asked at all… but it’s the skill she was given, the hand she has to play.

Cath couldn’t find her way out of a room with no walls. 

In her black dress, black gloves, and retro heels, she looks like Joan Crawford or Bette Davis.  She feels like them too.  Tough, yet brittle.  That’s the thing about being really hard.  When you do break, you shatter.

My Review:

I was immediately sucked into the powerful vortex of this enthralling and cleverly paced tale.  Written from the third person omniscient point of view, the storylines were fully textured, multi-layered, and ingeniously crafted.  The characters were all hues of shady and mysterious while endlessly fascinating and alluring.  But Ms. Lippman’s superlative writing tops all other elements as it was first class and kept me riveted and resentful of interruption.  I despised the need for sleep and begrudgingly put my book down only when necessary.  This author is a recent discovery for me and I am greedy to amass and hoard all of her mesmerizing arrangements of words.  

Empress DJ

About The Author  

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Laura Lippman was a reporter for twenty years, including twelve years at The (Baltimore) Sun. She began writing novels while working fulltime and published seven books about “accidental PI” Tess Monaghan before leaving daily journalism in 2001. Her work has been awarded the Edgar ®, the Anthony, the Agatha, the Shamus, the Nero Wolfe, Gumshoe and Barry awards. She also has been nominated for other prizes in the crime fiction field, including the Hammett and the Macavity. She was the first-ever recipient of the Mayor’s Prize for Literary Excellence and the first genre writer recognized as Author of the Year by the Maryland Library Association.

Ms. Lippman grew up in Baltimore and attended city schools through ninth grade. After graduating from Wilde Lake High School in Columbia, Md., Ms. Lippman attended Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Her other newspaper jobs included the Waco Tribune-Herald and the San Antonio Light.

Ms. Lippman returned to Baltimore in 1989 and has lived there since. She is the daughter of Theo Lippman Jr., a Sun editorial writer who retired in 1995 but continues to freelance for several newspapers, and Madeline Mabry Lippman, a former Baltimore City school librarian. Her sister, Susan, is a local bookseller.