Whodunit Ace Laura Lippmann to Speak

On Tuesday, Nov. 7, award-winning mystery writer Laura Lippman will be at Bryn Mawr to talk about her fiction, her reporter-turned-detective Tess Monaghan, and her own work as a reporter in Baltimore before she began writing novels. Lippman's talk, to take place in Carpenter 21 at 4:30 p.m., is associated with the exhibition Pointing Fingers: Women, Sin, Crime, and Guilt, which is currently on view in the Rare Book Room in Canaday Library. A reception in the Rare Book Room will follow the talk.

Lippman has won every major prize in American crime fiction, including the Edgar, Nero Wolfe, Anthony, Agatha and Shamus awards. Her novel In a Strange City was a New York Times Notable Book.

She was a reporter for 20 years, including 12 years at The (Baltimore) Sun. She began writing novels while working full time and published seven books about “accidental PI” Tess Monaghan before leaving daily journalism in 2001. She writes, "In 1992, The Evening Sun was swallowed by the morning paper, where my father still worked, so we were actually colleagues until he retired in 1995… It seemed prudent to think about what I might do if I ever gave up on journalism, or it gave up on me."

Her response was to start writing about a reporter who had lost her job, and who incidentally also lived in Baltimore: "The first Tess Monaghan novel,” Lippman says, “was inspired by my own job insecurity — Maryland was deep in a recession at the time I began writing it — and my fleeting desire to kill someone. Tess, a former newspaper reporter who hasn't figured out what to do with her life, conducts a low-stakes investigation for a fellow rower. The friend ends up being charged with murder and Tess is pressed into service by his attorney. This novel infuriated some readers because Tess was a mopey incompetent as a private investigator. But it was her first case. She got better."

The ninth Tess Monaghan book, No Good Deeds, was published in hardcover this summer. Lippman has also written two stand-alone crime novels, Every Secret Thing and To The Power of Three.

Lippman's visit is sponsored by the Friends of the Bryn Mawr College Library. The Bryn Mawr College Bookshop will make copies of Lippman's works available during the reception. The exhibition Pointing Fingers: Women, Sin, Crime, and Guilt is on view in the Rare Book Room through Dec. 22 from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 1-5 p.m. on weekends, except for holidays. Lecture and reception are free and open to the public.

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