Power of Three [Hardcover]

Laura Lippman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 18, 2005

Baltimore police receive an urgent call out to Glendale High after gunshots are heard coming from a locked girls' toilet. It appears that three girls are in there but only one, Josie, is conscious. She assures the police through the locked door that she's not the shooter. She also insists that she cannot manage to unlock the door because of the injury she has suffered to her leg. After a janitor is summoned, the police cautiously enter the bathroom. They find three victims - Josie, whose leg wound seems relatively superficial; Perri, who is unconscious from a bullet wound that has ripped through her jaw; and Katrina, who is dead, shot in the chest. The investigating team is led by Detective Harold Lenhardt - himself the father of an adolescent girl. He soon discovers information that is at odds with the story Josie is telling. Other clues at the scene suggest there was a fourth girl who witnessed the entire episode from behind a locked stall. Where is she now? How did she get out? Five years before this fatal shooting in the locked toilet, three girls met aged ten, and took a vow of eternal friendship. How did that passionate friendship change and evolve and finally fall apart?Here Laura Lippman combines police procedural with an intensely human, sad, eternal tale of growing up. As ever, she ratchets up the suspense as she unfolds her story with grace, sympathy and acute intelligence.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Laura Lippman has produced a vivid portrait of a little piece of middle America, a thoughtful and sensitive novel which makes disquieting reading." -- Susanna Yager THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, 11 Sept "A corker... engrossing." -- Peter Guttridge THE OBSERVER, 11 Sept

About the Author

Before becoming a full time novelist, Laura Lippman was a newspaper reporter for 20 years, including 12 at the Baltimore Sun. She lives in Baltimore.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Orion (An Imprint of the Orion Publ; 1ST edition (August 18, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0752868772
• ISBN-13: 978-0752868776
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,494,431 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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.