Summary:

In 1966, Baltimore is a city of secrets that everyone seems to know–everyone, that is, except Madeline “Maddie” Schwartz. Last year, she was a happy, even pampered housewife. This year, she’s bolted from her marriage of almost twenty years, determined to make good on her youthful ambitions to live a passionate, meaningful life. Maddie wants to matter, to leave her mark on a swiftly changing world. Drawing on her own secrets, she helps Baltimore police find a murdered girl–assistance that leads to a job at the city’s afternoon newspaper, the Star. Working at the newspaper offers Maddie the opportunity to make her name, and she has found just the story to do it: a missing woman whose body was discovered in the fountain of a city park lake. Cleo Sherwood was a young African-American woman who liked to have a good time. No one seems to know or care why she was killed except Maddie–and the dead woman herself. Maddie’s going to find the truth about Cleo’s life and death. Cleo’s ghost, privy to Maddie’s poking and prying, wants to be left alone. Maddie’s investigation brings her into contact with people that used to be on the periphery of her life–a jewelery store clerk, a waitress, a rising star on the Baltimore Orioles, a patrol cop, a hardened female reporter, a lonely man in a movie theater. But for all her ambition and drive, Maddie often fails to see the people right in front of her. Her inability to look beyond her own needs will lead to tragedy and turmoil for all sorts of people–including the man who shares her bed, a black police officer who cares for Maddie more than she knows.’

My Rating:

Lady in the Lake Spoilers:

The pet store clerk and his mother killed the little girl. Cleo was not the lady in the lake. It was her roommate who had OD’d. Cleo was having an affair with some important guy, and the lover’s friend paid his bouncer to kill her. The bouncer was friends with Cleo though, and instead let her live and pretended the body in the lake was her. Cleo returned to tell Maddie all this and to stop looking into her death when Maddie was in the hospital after being stabbed by the pet store clerk’s mom.

Love spoilers? Check out my full list of ten-second spoilers here.

Follow me on Bloglovin’!

Please leave this field empty

We're trying to grow our mailing list. If you join us and stick around, you will automatically be entered into two giveaways as a token of our thanks. And that's just the start!

First name *

Email *

Thank you! Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.