 |
 |
Sign in/joinLanguage: English [ others ]
Over forty million books on members' bookshelves.
|
Loading... Another Thing to Fall: A Novel (Tess Monaghan Mysteries)by Laura Lippman
LibraryThing recommendationsMember recommendationsLoading...
won't like
will probably not like
will probably like
will like
will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. reannon | Jun 28, 2009 |   Private Investigator Tess Monaghan unknowingly ruins a shoot for the film crew of TV series Mann of Steel and instead of being chastised for it ends up with a new assignment: bodyguard to the show’s youngest actor, Selene Waites. The producer Flip Tumulty and his company have had a run of vandalism, leading to bad press, and Flip is concerned for Selene’s safety. With the aid of her friend Whitney, Tess reluctantly takes on the job, and quickly learns Selene is not as passive and uneducated as she appears. When Flip’s assistant is found beaten to death, Tess realizes Selene may actually be in danger and begins her own investigation into what happened to the assistant. As always, Lippman provides the reader with an interesting view of Baltimore and its people and culture. The plot seems to stagger along at first, with no real sense of the characters involved. The killer’s mindset is initially hard to grasp, as is his reason for creating such havoc for the producer and his series. One interesting and refreshing character is Mrs. Blossom, one of Tess’s students in her private investigation class, who this reviewer hopes will return in future books. (  )ctfrench | Mar 2, 2009 | good audio (  )LDumes | Nov 22, 2008 |  Just could not get interested in this one. Reminded me too much of the Sara Peretsky books. Turned it off after the first cd. (  )LisaLynne | Oct 15, 2008 | Laura Lippman is usually a sharp writer, and Tess Monaghan is usually a good character. This mystery, though, is a bit of a mess. Lippman does some dishonest writing here by having characters' thoughts provided to the reader when only later we find those out to be false. This is true of Johnny Tampa's supposedly first person response to Selene. In addition, Lippman seems to want to prove she knows movie and tv trivia. Who cares. Wikipedia gives everyone that trivia. The shenanigans on the set of a tv show border on the boringly been there, read that. In her acknowledgments, Lippman tells the reader she is married to the producer of The Wire, a tv show set in Baltimore. Aha. She thought her insider's knowledge of a tv show would make a good novel. In this case at least, she was wrong. If Lippman does not know, she should, that nearly every viewer of a movie knows it's all smoke and mirrors. We know the sets are fake, that the views outside windows are bogus, and that lighting is used to make things appear either earlier or later in the day. Has she ever seen a movie set in Paris? Doesn't she think it odd that every single apartment, house, office, government building has a view of The Eiffel Tower. This is a patronizing book and a crappy mystery. ( )susanamper | Aug 22, 2008 | 0.037 seconds to build listing
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0061128872, Hardcover)The California dream weavers have invaded Charm City with their cameras, their stars, and their controversy. . . . When private investigator Tess Monaghan literally runs into the crew of the fledgling TV series Mann of Steel while sculling, she expects sharp words and evil looks, not an assignment. But the company has been plagued by a series of disturbing incidents since its arrival on location in Baltimore: bad press, union threats, and small, costly on-set "accidents" that have wreaked havoc with its shooting schedule. As a result, Mann's creator, Flip Tumulty, the son of a Hollywood legend, is worried for the safety of his young female lead, Selene Waites, and asks Tess to serve as her bodyguard/babysitter. Tumulty's concern may be well founded. Not long ago a Baltimore man was discovered dead in his own home, surrounded by photos of the beautiful, difficult superstar-in-the-making. In the past, Tess has had enough trouble guarding her own body. Keeping a spoiled movie princess under wraps may be more than she can handle—even with the help of Tess's icily unflappable friend Whitney—since Selene is not as naive as everyone seems to think, and far more devious than she initially appears to be. This is not Tess's world. And these are not her kind of people, with their vanities, their self-serving agendas and invented personas, and their remarkably skewed visions of reality—from the series' aging, shallow, former pretty-boy leading man to its resentful, always-on-the-make cowriter to the officious young assistant who may be too hungry for her own good. But the fish-out-of-water P.I. is abruptly pulled back in by an occurrence she's all too familiar with—murder. Suddenly the wall of secrets around Mann of Steel is in danger of toppling, leaving shattered dreams, careers, and lives scattered among the ruins—a catastrophe that threatens the people Tess cares about . . . and the city she loves. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:53 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
Abebooks |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Good novel, not the best in the series, but well worth the read. (