Helpful Score: 3
This was my first Laura Lippman book and I am now looking forward to reading more by this author. I found the storytelling style so natural that while the characters in the book couldn't be more different from me, I felt like I knew and understood them from page one.
The story does hop around (back and forth) in time over a period of 50 years, but I found it worked. At one point (about a third of the way through) I had to go back and re-read a couple early pages at the beginning to refresh my memory about someone, but after that it flowed easily and I had little trouble keeping track of the time period being portrayed, and more importantly, understanding why the author took the reader back or forward to a particular date.
The mystery unfolded slowly and incrementally, and while there was no serious suspense throughout the story, the ending was a total surprise to me - and believable once it unfolded. Being surprised by "who done it", topped off a well-told story very nicely.
The story does hop around (back and forth) in time over a period of 50 years, but I found it worked. At one point (about a third of the way through) I had to go back and re-read a couple early pages at the beginning to refresh my memory about someone, but after that it flowed easily and I had little trouble keeping track of the time period being portrayed, and more importantly, understanding why the author took the reader back or forward to a particular date.
The mystery unfolded slowly and incrementally, and while there was no serious suspense throughout the story, the ending was a total surprise to me - and believable once it unfolded. Being surprised by "who done it", topped off a well-told story very nicely.
