2016 Book #44 – Wilde Lake by Laura Lippman

Title: Wilde Lake
Author: Laura Lippman
Date finished: 5/10/16
Genre: Fiction, suspense
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: May 3, 2016
Pages in book: 368
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: Edelweiss NOTE: I received this book for free from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

The New York Times bestselling author of the acclaimed standalones After I’m Gone, I’d Know You Anywhere, and What the Dead Know, challenges our notions of memory, loyalty, responsibility, and justice in this evocative and psychologically complex story about a long-ago death that still haunts a family.
Luisa “Lu” Brant is the newly elected—and first female—state’s attorney of Howard County, Maryland, a job in which her widower father famously served. Fiercely intelligent and ambitious, she sees an opportunity to make her name by trying a mentally disturbed drifter accused of beating a woman to death in her home. It’s not the kind of case that makes headlines, but peaceful Howard county doesn’t see many homicides.
As Lu prepares for the trial, the case dredges up painful memories, reminding her small but tight-knit family of the night when her brother, AJ, saved his best friend at the cost of another man’s life. Only eighteen, AJ was cleared by a grand jury. Now, Lu wonders if the events of 1980 happened as she remembers them. What details might have been withheld from her when she was a child?
The more she learns about the case, the more questions arise. What does it mean to be a man or woman of one’s times? Why do we ask our heroes of the past to conform to the present’s standards? Is that fair? Is it right? Propelled into the past, she discovers that the legal system, the bedrock of her entire life, does not have all the answers. Lu realizes that even if she could learn the whole truth, she probably wouldn’t want to.

My rating: 3.75 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. This is my first book that I’ve finished during the Bout of Books 16 read-a-thon and was the first one on my goals list. I haven’t read anything by Lippman yet but I have heard good things about her books and they have sounded interesting as well, so when I saw her new release was available on Edelweiss I decided to give it a try! This book is about Luisa Brant, who followed in her father’s footsteps and became the state attorney for Howard County, Maryland. While settling into her new job, she is given reason to re-examine something that happened to her brother in his senior year of high school, when she was only ten. Since she was so young, her memories of the events have many holes and once she starts filling them in, she begins to realize that things may not have happened as she always had been told.
Overall I thought this was a good book. There were a number of good plot twists and the story line held my interest through the whole book. While I thought it was an interesting book, I wouldn’t say that it thrilled me but it did keep me in suspense. There are some questions that don’t get answered by the end of the book due to unforeseen circumstances, and while I would have been ok with getting the questions answered it didn’t detract from the book for me that they were left unanswered. Lu isn’t an easy character to connect with, but I think that was in line with her character to be honest. She was raised by a widower with her older brother, who was 8 years her senior. There wasn’t an over abundance of affection in their house, Lu as a character is slightly cold and calculation, but she loves her family fiercely and will do whatever it takes to protect them. This was a good book; I especially thought it was interesting to see the court process that was included as part of the story line. I would give this one a try!

The bottom line: I liked this book. It held my interest and had a number of good plot twists. I didn’t feel a real connection to the characters and the ending left some questions for the reader but other than that I enjoyed the book. I would recommend it, it was a good read.

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page