Charm City

Dealing with the fallout of the death of her ex in book #1, Tess is finally pushing to become a private investigator. Seeing someone new (Crow) she feels a bit more centered, but not by much. Her family still drives her up the wall, her boss (sort of) who is pushing her to get off her butt and set up her own office. We get to see Tess pounding the pavement to figure out the mystery behind two cases and come to a decision about her love life.

When her uncle ends up in the hospital, Tess is left caring for a dog he recently got and trying to figure out why mysterious men in cars are following her and her family. On top of that, Whitney talks her up to the editors at the Beacon Blight to hire Tess to figure out who is behind a story going show more to press that was killed.

Tess having a background in newspapers definitely helps her out here. She manages to use what she knows to go back and look at the sources/writers of the newspaper story that was supposed to get killed. Tess also manages to piece together what her uncle was up to and why people are looking for something he hid. Tess we find out in this book used to have an eating disorder and we get why she's so focused on working out every day if she can. I already knew she rowed in college, but finding out there's a reason why she was into working out and having bulimia made me feel for her.

I thought Tess and Crow were pretty meh. There was foreshadowing all along how that was going to end up. He just seems to be there for her to stomp all over. I would have gotten fed up too. I also would have gotten fed up with him wanting more than I wanted to give, so they both cancel each other out. Tess's second love interest didn't do a lot for more either. Never a fan of love triangles in books, but this one didn't really bother me so much since Tess at least did the right thing by not jerking two guys around at the same time.

The setting of Baltimore is played up here a lot and you hear all about Charm City in this second book. It's funny that I live so close and I have been to Baltimore just once. Tess via Lippman talks a lot of crap about those who came in and tried to gentrify Baltimore and the white and black flight from certain areas. show less

This book starts out slow & clunky. There's too much emphasis on Baltimore. I get that we're supposed to get the feel of the place, what makes it unique. But it occupies too much space in this novel. Also, this feel really dated. It's about the newspaper business before the Internet boom. Newspapers have redefined themselves by now, but in 1997, the struggle was looming. And reading this now feels moot. So in this instance, Lippman's setting & B story work against the book today.

However, once you get to the heart of the mystery, you are able to let go of those things & enjoy the ride. Like a good PI story should, it starts galloping toward the end, insisting that you just finish it already.

After this installment, I'm not sure how I show more feel about Tess Monaghan. I thought I liked her enough to get into this series, but I'm feeling ambivalent now. I'll give it another whirl before I decide for sure. show less

I enjoy spending time with Tess Monoghan, and this book, though very dated, was quite enjoyable. There is a lot of talk about the use of computers in 1997, and there is a central plot point that includes a VHS tape. It feels like they are discussing butter churns or the mechanical sewing machine. Also, the whole thing centers on the goings on in a newsroom, and there is much talk about the printing and layout of newspapers. It's funny, the historical details in Raymond Chandler make it feel period, while these things just make the whole seem kind of old. I guess because all of this still bears some connection to life today, but an old-fashioned version, while the details in the early 20th century are disconnected from life today. That show more is not a fault of the book, though, and I had real fun with this. A great palate cleanser.

Note, I had an old mass market paperback of this, and I was reminded that I really hate mass market paperbacks with their crooked typesetting, cheap ink, and godawful fonts. I like reading a nicely made book, but I will take Kindle over this any day of the week! show less

Like the first book in this series, *Charm City* is tautly written, tightly plotted, and filled with quirky, colorful characters, and set in lovingly rendered 1990s Baltimore's unique combination of seediness and excess. Tess's character seemed to emerge more fully in this novel. In Baltimore Blues, the first book in the series, she seemed somewhat stilted, the product of some kind of genre formula for creating interesting lead character. In this novel, she seems more like a real person, one you can care about, and care to follow as she explores the mysteries of the human heart -- the true subject of noir fiction. On the whole, this was a very enjoyable if still somewhat formulaic book. But it suggests that there is potentially much show more better to hope for from the the series. I intend to keep reading it. show less

Charm City, the second installment in Laura Lippman's Tess Monaghan series, has been reissued in hardcover this year, a decade after first appearing in paperback. It's easy to see why publisher William Morrow deemed this mystery worthy of republication.

Tess, a former journalist turned private investigator, keeps the narrative edgy with her quirky personality and often-cutting assessments of other characters. The novel uses Baltimore's unique mid-Atlantic atmosphere and notable landmarks to their fullest, making the Charm City as important to the feel of the story as any of the characters or plot turns.

The mystery takes a while to rev up, as Lippman juggles the main story line (the mystery surrounding the unauthorized publication in show more the Beacon-Light newspaper of a scathing article about a businessman who has plans to bring professional basketball to Baltimore) with a subplot involving a brutal attack on Tess's Uncle Spike and its seeming connection to a greyhound dog that comes under Tess's care. While not traditional ingredients for a mystery novel, Lippman cranks up the stakes masterfully when Tess's investigation of these two capers begins to reveal a dark side behind the Beacon-Light newspaper and the greyhound racing establishment.

The ending of the novel features plenty of grisly action, along with a few somewhat-improbable twists and character motives that struck me as slightly out-of-place in a mystery that's otherwise so grounded and authentic. Overall, though, this is a strong, engaging novel that works well either as a stand-alone mystery or an entree into the series. show less

Tess Monaghan is a former journalist and part-time unlicensed investigator for a law firm. She's called in to investigate how someone slipped an unauthorized story into the Beacon Light newspaper, and agrees because she'd like to use their resources to figure out why her uncle got beat up so bad he's in a coma.
Like a lot of mystery-novel heroes, Tess manages to get herself mixed up in situations that are really best left to law enforcement, but at least it was for more realistic reasons.
The eventual bad-guy reveal was quite unexpected, although there were clues all along that the reader could have picked up on had she been paying better attention.
Tess is a genuine, and genuinely flawed, character and her investigative tactics are show more entertaining to read about. I recommend this book to fans of mystery/thrillers as well as strong female heroes. show less

In Book Two of the Tess Monaghan Detective Series, we find the 5’9” twenty-nine year old working as an investigator for her rowing friend/lawyer, Tyner Gray. The series is set in Baltimore, known [in real life] as "Charm City" since 1974 when the Baltimore Promotion Council decided to enhance the city's image by declaring this new nickname. But sometimes, as Tess discovers, it isn't all that charming.

Gray lets Tess take a short leave to work on two side matters that have arisen. The first is that someone has beaten her Uncle Spike within an inch of his life; he is now in a coma. She wants to uncover what happened to him and why. Moreover, for however long he is in the hospital, she has custody of his newly acquired ratty-looking show more greyhound. Second, she was awarded a contract job by the Beacon-Light newspaper to determine how a feature got printed on the front page that was not yet vetted or approved. The story impugned the reputation of Gerard “Wink” Wynkowski, who was trying to bring a basketball team back to Baltimore.

Tess is unexpectedly attracted to Jack Sterling, the Deputy Managing Editor of the newspaper, although her twenty-three year old boyfriend, Crow, is living with her now. She breaks up with Crow right before their sixth-month anniversary so she can pursue the surge of electricity she felt upon meeting Sterling.

Even while dallying with Jack, Tess continues to work on the two side cases, and pretty soon, she has all kinds of nefarious sorts trying to kill her.

Evaluation: This second installment of the Tess Monaghan series won the Edgar and Shamus awards for mysteries. I love the Baltimore setting and the characters are quite likeable. The “whodunit” portions remained mysterious to me until the author clued me in, which I always appreciate in a mystery. I'll keep going with the series! show less