Sugar House: A Tess Monaghan Novel

Baltimore local Tess Monaghan thought she knew the Sugar House—the abandoned factory that remains a stubborn and defiant legacy of the citys past—until a client named Ruthie asks the newspaperwoman-turned-p.i. to investigate a year-old “Jane Doe” murder and its grim aftermath. Ruthies low-life brother, Henry, confessed to killing a teenage runaway over a bottle of glue—and, a month into his prison term, met the same fate as his victim. Following a precious few tantalizing clues, Tesss hunt for the truth is leading her from Baltimores exclusive Inner Harbor to the citys seediest neighborhoods—a hunt that turns deadly with the shocking discovery of the runaways true identity. Suddenly, a supposedly solved murder case is turning up newer, fresher corpses and newer, scarier versions of the Sugar House—places that look sweet and safe . . . but only from the outside.

Laura Lippman grew up in Baltimore and returned to her hometown in 1989 to work as a journalist. After writing seven books while still a full-time reporter, she left the Baltimore Sun to focus on fiction. She is the author of eleven Tess Monaghan books, including Baltimore Blues, Another Thing to Fall, and The Girl in the Green Raincoat; five stand-alone novels, including Every Secret Thing, To the Power of Three, What the Dead Know, and Life Sentences; and one short story collection, Hardly Knew Her. She is also the editor of another story collection, Baltimore Noir. Lippman has won numerous awards for her work, including the Edgar, Quill, Anthony, Nero Wolfe, Agatha, Gumshoe, Barry, and Macavity.