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Blog Tour: 56. I'd Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman...

May 5, 2011
I'd read Laura Lippman's Baltimore Blues on my nook a while ago, and liked it, so when offered a chance to participate in the tour for I'd Know You Anywhere, I said "yes!"

I’D KNOW YOU ANYWHERE is a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award (mystery category) and for the 2011 Edgar Award in the Best Novel category. The book was also nominated for a Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award. I’D KNOW YOU ANYWHERE was included on numerous “Best of 2010” lists, including Stephen King's list in Entertainment Weekly. Lippman has previously won Edgar, Shamus, Anthony, Gumshoe and Quill Awards for her work. The Washington Post calls her “One of the best novelists around, period.”

About the book:
ISBN-13: 9780062070753
Paperback: 370 pages
Publisher: Harper Collins, 2011 (reprint)
Purchase at IndieBound, Amazon, The Book Depository
Source: Authors on the Web


There was your photo, in a magazine. Of course, you are older now. Still, I'd know you anywhere.

Suburban wife and mother Eliza Benedict's peaceful world falls off its axis when a letter arrives from Walter Bowman. In the summer of 1985, when Eliza was fifteen, she was kidnapped by this man and held hostage for almost six weeks. Now he's on death row in Virginia for the rape and murder of his final victim, and Eliza wants nothing to do with him. Walter, however, is unpredictable when ignored—as Eliza knows only too well—and to shelter her children from the nightmare of her past, she'll see him one last time.

But Walter is after something more than forgiveness: He wants Eliza to save his life . . . and he wants her to remember the truth about that long-ago summer and release the terrible secret she's keeping buried inside.

drey's thoughts:
Eliza is happy to be an anonymous suburban mother with a temperamental teenager and a sweet eight-year-old. Then one day a letter shows up and throws her into a tizzy, raking up memories of her past--one where she'd been kidnapped by a serial killer and lived to tell the tale. And now he's found her from behind bars, but why?

I'd Know You Anywhere starts with Walter trying to get a girlfriend, then swings between Eliza's current day and her time with Walter. It's a tense tale, told in spare language--sometimes so spare I didn't really get a feel for Walter or Eliza. Why did he do it? What was his justification (to himself, if nobody else)? Did she have Stockholm syndrome, or did she really believe him when he said he'd kill her and her whole family? Usually there's a lot more background on the sociopath and what drives him, but this isn't a police procedural crime novel. I have to admit I felt a bit lost, and I didn't really care what his motives are, or what Eliza does.

Rather, this is an after-the-fact story, and also a tale about relationships--the ones between a victim and her captor, between a victim and her loved ones, and the ones between the perpetrator and those who believe him innocent. To me, how these emotional tangles are navigated is what makes this a good read.

drey's rating: Pick it up!

Check out this video with Laura Lippman:


Giveaway!
Thanks to Authors on the Web and the publisher William Morrow, THREE lucky ducks will be getting a copy of one of Laura Lippman's books: What the Dead Know, The Girl in the Green Raincoat, and I'd Know You Anywhere! This is restricted to US/Canada only, no PO boxes please. To enter, fill out the form below before 6pm CST May 18th! One entry per person, multiples will be disqualified (you may want to comment after filling out the form so you know you've already entered)...

Click on the covers to find out more about the three books at Amazon, and click on the excerpt links to browse the first pages at HarperCollins:
What the Dead Know: A Novel
excerpt
The Girl in the Green Raincoat: A Tess Monaghan Novel
excerpt
I'd Know You Anywhere: A Novel
excerpt

5 comments:

bermudaonion said...

It's been a while since I've read any of Lippman's work, but I do enjoy her writing. Glad to see this is good.

holdenj said...

I read Girl in the Green Raincoat earlier this year and really liked it.

drey said...

Kathy~ I've only read Baltimore Blues, till I'd Know You Anywhere. Laura's not a omg-I-must-get-her-next-book-or-I'll-die author (to me) but rather on my oh-hey-there's-another-laura-lippman list...

holdenj~ I love the cover for The Girl in the Green Raincoat! I want one just like it! :)

mamabunny13 said...

Thanks for the giveaway. It was so hard to choose between the three!

drey said...

mamabunny--I know! How'd you do it? Three makes heads-or-tails not work... :P

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