The Sugar House: A Tess Monaghan Investigation [Import] [Hardcover]

Laura Lippman (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Orion; 1st UK edition edition (October 19, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0752838237
• ISBN-13: 978-0752838236
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,856,632 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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blue collar heroine in a wonderful mystery, December 7, 2000

By 

booksforabuck "BooksForABuck" (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Sugar House: A Tess Monaghan Mystery (Hardcover)

Tess Monaghan is a blue collar woman in Baltimore, the ultimate blue collar city. She agrees to take a case for a friend of her father's--trying to find out why the friend's brother died in prison. Her investigation leads her into both the upper reaches of society and down to a strange underworld of prostitution, unethical centers for treatment of eating disorders, and crooked politicians.

Laura Lippman has surrounded Tess with a charming assortment of friends and family members. Their obvious affection for Tess makes her more compelling to the reader. As Tess steps more and more deeply into danger, you'll find yourself turning the pages faster and faster. The mystery is well crafted and Lippman dangles clues, one by one, leaving the reader like Tess certain that there is a way of connecting them without actually able to do it.

This book is especially popular in Maryland which is great--as a longtime resident of Maryland I felt at home reading it--but it is far to good to be missed out on by the rest of us.

THE SUGAR HOUSE may be the best mystery you read this year.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's About Time Tess Made Hardcover, July 5, 2001

By 

Kent Braithwaite (Palm Desert, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sugar House: A Tess Monaghan Mystery (Hardcover)

As a mystery writer with my first book in its initial release, I genuinely admire Laura Lippman, an author who is clearly at the top of her game. SUGAR HOUSE is Lippman's first hardcover mystery, and it is a fabulous novel. Lippman's protagonist, Tess Monaghan, agrees to her father's request and attempts to identify a nameless dead girl whose murderer himself was murdered. To accomplish this task, Lippman takes us on a tour of the Atlantic coast. Tess journeys from her usual stomping grounds of Baltimore to Annapolis, Philadelphia, and Maryland's Eastern Shore. Lippman continues to develop her Tess character, as well as several supporting characters. SUGAR HOUSE's plot is first-rate, and Lippman's writing is smooth. It is difficult to believe that it has taken five paperback books for Tess to reach hardcover. SUGAR HOUSE is a great mystery, and I recommend it highly.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Baltimore revisited!, October 15, 2000

By 

"book-wyrm" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sugar House: A Tess Monaghan Mystery (Hardcover)

WOW! Start with the cover with its dawn view across Baltimore's famed Inner Harbor of Domino's "Sugar House." Inside it gets even better. Laura knows Bawlmer and brings it to life. Throughout the Tess Monaghan series, she brings you the sights; the smells of McCormick's spices wafting across the harbor; the taste and diversity of the ethnic neighborhoods and foods (although I think I'll pass on the 'green pepper rings with powdered sugar'). Combine this with a well rounded mystery story with well developed and believable characters (including the animals) and you have a great book. Each of her books can be read individually, but I recommend starting with the first of the series, BALTIMORE BLUES, and following the series in order. And it's not just for Baltimoreans -- most other cities have similar neighborhoods, so no matter where you're from you will ENJOY!