In A Strange City

"What's the difference between a ritual and a routine? It's a question he asks himself almost every day. Are rituals better than routines, more elevated? Or do ritual invariable slide into routine, until we forget why we started and why we continue? Another good question, but he's afraid pondering the answer will only tempt him to sleep, and he is determined to see the sun rise today. Once upon a midnight dreary...ah, but such allusions are unworthy, the sort of obvious unthinking wordplay one expects from the newspaper hacks who write about him. Even in print, they cannot capture him.

He would not say it out loud - for one thing, he has no one to whom to say it - but he has begun to feel a kinship with Santa Claus. Who knows, Saint Nick was probably real once. A man decides to put on a red suit, visit a few houses in his village, and leave gifts behind. The first year, it was a lark. The next year, it was an obligation. And then the next and the next, until he could never stop.

But in that case, the tradition outgrew the man, so others had to step forward and preserve it. He cannot count on this happening here. He had been chosen, and soon he must choose." (pg 2).

So begins the latest novel from Laura Lippman, In A Strange City, the sixth book in the Tess Monaghan series. The premise behind this novel is that for the past fifty years on the birth date of Edgar Allen Poe, a person wearing a cloak has places three roses and a bottle of cognac on the writer's grave. His identity has remained a mystery. This time two men show up a the grave site and one of them is shot. Now the mystery grows as Private Investigator Tess Monaghan witnesses the apparent murder but just who shot whom and what is the connection? When roses and cognac appear on her doorstep, it seems as if the investigation takes on a whole new dimension as it begins to get personal.

I received In A Strange City by Laura Lippman compliments of William Morrow, a division of Harper Collins Publishers for my honest review. I did not receive any monetary compensation aside from a free copy of this novel in exchange for my fair and unbiased opinion. Having read other novels from Laura Lippman, I found myself wanting this to be as good as her other books, but was disappointed by this being a reprint from 2001 when the novel was first published. I LOVE anything to do with Poe and love the occasional references to the literary writings of Poe along with the background of the toaster and more about who Poe was outside of his novels. All in all, I wasn't really a fan of this one considering I love a great mystery novel. For me this one came in at a 3 out of 5 stars in my opinion. Just didn't provide the twists and turns I was hoping for as they clues were almost spoon-fed to Tess Monaghan to figure out the who done it.

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In A Strange City by Laura Lippman

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