The Girl in the Green Raincoat is the latest in the Tess Monaghan series by Laura Lippman. This short book, considered a novella, was originally published as a serial in the New York Times Magazine and was released earlier year in book form. In this installment, Tess is placed on bed rest while in the final months of her at-risk pregnancy. She spends her days resting in the newly renovated sun porch that overlooks the local dog park while friends and family take turns bringing in her meals. To pass the time, Tess uses binoculars to watch the dogs and their owners at the park and she is drawn to one dog and owner pair who wears matching green raincoats. One day, the dog shows up sans its owner and Tess becomes transfixed with finding out why and what happened to the owner.
Considering that this was a novella, it was interesting to see how Lippman pulled all of the long term characters into the story to give Tess advice or to chat with her about the baby. Tess being bed-ridden gave her a lot of time to think about the case and the impending birth. And it was nice to see Tess come around to becoming a mother.
As usual, I thought the book was way too short and I am anxious for the next one!
The Number Series books by Janet Evanovich are more humorous than anything else and Sizzling Sixteen was no exception. In this book, Stephanie has to do her usual (or is it unusual?) skip tracking as well as hunt down and save her cousin, Vinnie, who runs the bond office and was kidnapped for a gambling debt (I think). And there is a deadline for rescuing Vinnie before the kidnappers make good on their threats.
As usual, Morelli is involved and he and Stephanie are “off-again” in this book; Ranger makes appearances and saves the day; Lula is on a new diet where she can eat one of everything; Grandma Mazor needs rides to funerals; and Stephanie has car issues.
While these books are quick reads and can be amusing, the storylines are basically the same with the usual plot ‘twists’ thrown in and mixed up a little. It is definitely a good read that you don’t need to pay a lot of attention to in order to follow along.
2 comments:
I havent read much this summer. I have read the first in The Number Series. never bought the second though.
I have never read any of the Laura Lippman books.Will try one next time I am at the Library. I have read a couple of the Stephanie Plum series. You're right, they are a simple read. Thanks for the review.
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