A review by crabbytaco
Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

Ten or fifteen years ago, I may have been frustrated by the distractions from the actual plots - the main character’s sexual history, for one, which seems to pop up in nearly every chapter. (Bring it up once to maybe explain her current relationship with Ferdie but why continue to mention it?) But now, after everything that has happened in the world and everything I’ve learned, it’s more about the plot itself - a middle-aged white woman (Maddie) attempting to solve a black woman’s murder and every single character through the multiple POVs in the book, including the black woman herself, is absolutely obsessed with her. I found Maddie to be a very flawed character - which is fine because every character is human -  but in the epilogue, decades later, she reviews her flaws during the time of the novel and puts them all on others instead of showing any growth. I found the multiple POVs really creative and innovative and felt that the book was very well-researched in 1960s Baltimore. But everything else was just…not great.