Laura Lippman has an amazing skill to her writing, which lingers on all the seemingly inconsequential details of everyday life in the 1960’s, but also affords us the opportunity to see the reality of what life was like for women at that time. Make no mistake, Maddie is not a meek and mild woman unable to do anything on her own, she is a fiercely independent person who has decided that her time is now.Īs she sets out on her own, she has to make sacrifices about where she lives and what she does, and her decision to live in a neighbourhood which is removed from the gilded cage she has previously inhabited is the start of her quest for independence. Except for Maddie, it’s not enough.Ĭaught in a world that has meant she has had to subdue every outspoken word and trapped in a life that brings her no personal joy, she makes the brave decision to walk away from her marriage and start her life over again. Her culinary and hostessing skills are second to none, and her privileged life and social connections should guarantee a comfortable and secure life. Maddie Schwartz is seemingly a happily married woman, wife to Milton and Mother to Seth.

To start to read the Lady In The Lake, is to lose yourself completely in the world of Baltimore and a time where a woman’s worth is solely judged on their ability to ensure that food is on the table, the house is tidy, the children are seen and not heard, and women’s own hopes and dreams are relegated to an afterthought. What she can’t imagine is how much trouble she will cause by chasing a story that no-one wants her to tell. When she hears about an unidentified body that’s been pulled out of the fountain in Druid Hill Park, Maddie thinks she is about to uncover a story that will finally get her name in print. Maddie Schwartz – recently separated from her husband, working her first job as an assistant at the Baltimore Sun– wants one thing: a byline. It isn’t hard to understand why: it’s 1964 and neither the police, the public nor the papers care much when Negro women go missing. Aside from her parents and the two sons she left behind, no one seems to have noticed.

Available from all good online and high street bookshopsĬleo Sherwood disappeared eight months ago.

Lady in the lake book by laura lippman